The study was conceived and commissioned as part of the Australian Government Department of Immigration and Border Protection’s Irregular Migration Research Programme and supported by the IOM and is one of the largest comparative projects on this topic in recent years.

The statistical data up till the month June on assisted voluntary return (REAB) are available. In June 410 people voluntarily returned to their country of origin, bringing the total for the first six months of 2012 to 1990.