What if the country where refugees came from gained political and/or economic stability? What if the country where the refugee had gone to for safety turned out to give the refugee a worse situation than before? What if the refugee wants to go back to their country for whatever reason? The process is actually much more complicated than expected, and is also heavily frowned upon depending on which country the refugees are in or even coming from. Wanting to go back to a native country may not even be possible once you are a refugee, as the legal process may bind you to certain restrictions.
For starters, there are many factors that should be considered when refugees want to return to their own country. One of the main factors is transportation. How will these refugees return to their country of origin? Many refugees leave their home country via some military transport that is constantly going from the endangered country to the country of safety. The chances of the safe country to provide military transport from the safe country to a previously endangered country, especially if that country does not have any more refugee camps, is very slim. As a refugee, it also may be unlikely that the person or family has significant funds to buy a commercial plane ticket to their country of origin. Therefore, refugees usually need the support of some service organization to return. In certain countries like India, the refugees sometimes have no way to return back to their country, which causes them to be stuck in the country.
Another major factor is the refugee’s use of resources in the country they originally went to. When a refugee goes to a country and even stays there for a while (but maybe not long enough to go from refugee to citizen status), the country may have used a significant amount of resources on helping the refugee settle. Many countries may strip away the refugees of their resources upon the refugee returning to their country. However, the revocation of the resources can provide a difficult situation for refugees returning, as they may not have significant funds to begin their life again, especially if their old home and living conditions got destroyed when the country was in danger.
Sometimes, a refugee may not be able to return home due to immigration services not allowing them to return, for various reasons such as resource or other legal reasons. Sometimes, it is considered the refugee’s right to go back to their country in some areas, but others may not consider it as they personally invited the refugee to stay at the country’s expense. Sometimes, the refugee when returning home may not be in the complete state to find their home or job. If many refugees return to the same area, that may have gotten destroyed, then there could be fights and arguments ensued for who owns what. Therefore, sometimes a country or service organization may have to provide some sort of legal attorney or backing when it comes to certain preventions or solutions to the fights.
At times, the refugees may not legally return, as the country they want to return to is not deemed as safe for the refugee to return to. This is actually a large problem that many refugees face. Especially in Ukraine in recent times, many initial refugees want to return to Ukraine for various reasons: family, to help fight, and more. Though a lot of countries are permissive, many are not due to various tie-ups in the legal system or refugee process. Once again, the refugees might need some sort of legal protection when it comes to returning to their country of origin if that country is still considered ‘endangered.’ For countries considered endangered, some refugees may even want to just visit their home country for whatever reason. Lots of service organizations and countries may provide such visits, but once again, it requires some legal backing for the refugee to complete this.
To summarize, the refugees once again need a lot of help when it comes to returning to their country, for better or for worse. Though many countries and service organizations are working to better find solutions for this problem, awareness should be spread on this issue.
I find this specific topic surrounding refugees interesting because returning to their home country is not something I would associate with the matter of refugees. Though, I am not surprised with the troubles that refugees face trying to get back to their country of origin, especially since the country they went to has used their own resources to help these people. I would also be interested in learning more about specific reasons for refugees wanting to go back to their home, like certain situations and adversity they’ve faced.
It is really sad and unfortunate to hear of some stories of families trying to escape their country, being sent back, and you have to wonder what happens next for them. Also like you mentioned, the country that the refugees are fleeing to, never usually give transportation for the refugees back to their respective country, and these refugees do not usually come from money. I think it is important that every country that gets refugees to ensure that they return to their respective countries safely, if that country does not accept them as refugees.
From what I have seen on the news and from first hand accounts, I believe that it is a refugees dream to return to their home. Form what I have hear from people I know is that they would return to their home country the first chance they got. However, this may sometimes not be the best decision. Many of these statements are rooted in nostaligia. Refugees want to go back to their home countries because that is all they ever knew. That may not be the best decision though. There are a bunch of uncertainties with returning to a homecountry such as safety, economic instability, and the long moving process.