What happens when “return” becomes the default answer, but not a realistic outcome? Across Europe, return policies are tightening. Yet on the ground, the picture is more complicated. People remain in limbo. Procedures stretch on. Compliance depends not only on enforcement, but on whether processes are experienced as fair. And when return does happen, its human consequences often remain unseen. On Friday 13 March 2026 ESSB and the FAiR project organises a dialogue for policymakers, NGO representatives, researchers, and practitioners to look at these tensions directly.
- Date
- Friday 13 Mar 2026, 13:00 - 17:00
- Type
- Symposium
- Spoken Language
- English
- Location
OASE, Rotterdam Schiehaven 15a Rotterdam
- Ticket information
No fee
The programme draws on findings from Erasmus University Rotterdam and the FAiR Project, including stories presented in Unseen Lives, which documents how legal uncertainty, prolonged procedures, and return processes shape people’s well-being and daily realities in ways that rarely enter policy debates.
Rather than discussing return as an abstract instrument, we will ask:
- How do asylum seekers’ perceptions of fairness shape their responses to return decisions?
- What do Europeans actually prefer when return is not possible?
- What are the well-being and human rights implications of prolonged uncertainty and post-return conditions?
- And what do these insights mean for the legitimacy and effectiveness of current policy approaches?
Programme
13:00 - Registration and walk-in
13:30 - Introduction & welcome from moderator Hillmann Butuo }
- Panel 1: Why do return orders not always lead to return?
- Panel 2: Are human rights an obstacle to enforcement of return?
- Paper Pitches
- Closing from Professor Arjen Leerkes
16:30 - Refreshments and snacks
Speakers
- Host - Hillman Batuo, Medical Advisor & Content creator
- Dr Ana Maria Torres Chedraui, Researcher, Erasmus University Rotterdam
- Dr Arjen Leerkes, Professor of Migration, Securitization and Social Cohesion, Erasmus University Rotterdam
- Dr Antonella Patteri, Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences
- Dr Francesco Renzini, University of Milan
- Sonya Taheri, Immigration Lawyer
- Jan Braat, Municipality of Utrecht
- Ali Agayev, Immigration Lawyer
- Rian Ederveen, Coordinator of the LOS Foundation (National Support Centre for Undocumented Migrants)
- Claudia van den Groot, Repatriation and Departure Service (DT&V) of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security
Panel topics
#1 Why do return orders not always lead to return?
Many return orders issued by states are not carried out in practice. Even where enforcement becomes more restrictive, compliance with return decisions remains uncertain. This raises questions about whether the challenge is only one of capacity and enforcement, or whether issues of perceived legitimacy also play an important role. In addition, if migrants cannot be returned, European states need to respond to this. Public opinion will likely inform those responses.
#2 Are human rights an obstacle to the enforcement of return?
Across the EU, the return system has expanded. Some Member States claim that human rights obligations make it harder to enforce return decisions. As a result, current policies increasingly focus on speeding up deportations and returns. This includes wider use of pre-removal detention and detention conditions but also, the decision to send returnable migrants to third countries, also known as “return hubs.”
Organisation email: fair@eur.nl
- More information
Marjolein Kooistra, communicatie ESSB, 0683676038, kooistra@essb.eur.nl
