The European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM) funded a project raising awareness on the situation of unreturnable migrants in the European Union. Its two main goals are to increase public debate on the limbo situation of unreturnable migrants – who can neither return home, nor acquire a resident permit – and to convince governments to not use detention in cases of unreturnable migrants and to guarantee them access to fundamental rights.

Besides informing decision-makers, the project reaches out to civil societies to give visibility to this group of migrants, who are often living outside the radar of public attention.

One of the key activities of the project is to collect testimonies from unreturnable migrants in Europe that can be used as advocacy tools at the national and the EU level in order to increase momentum amongst policy-makers to limit detention and find solutions for unreturnable migrants. These personal stories thus “put a face to the story”.

The website and report are both available here