On 2 and 3 May, a senior delegation from the Government of Bangladesh paid a visit to Georgia to discuss with their Georgian counterparts modalities of cooperation on return of migrants. The Bangladeshi delegation visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and focused in particular on Georgia’s experience and achievements in cooperating with the European Union (EU) on readmission.

The Bangladeshi delegation’s prime aim of this visit to Georgia was to study the country’s experience in developing and managing the Readmission Case Management System (RCMS), which the Georgian authorities in close coordination with IOM under a series of EU-funded projects developed over the past 7 years. This Georgian system has attracted attention from a range of countries in Europe and also in Asia and is considered a best practice model in managing readmission with the EU.

The EU-Georgia Readmission Agreement, envisaging readmission of third country nationals from Georgia, obliges Georgia to establish cooperation mechanisms in this direction. Since 2013, Georgia has been approaching Asian and African countries for cooperation on return management, but to date no particular progress has been made in the exchange of information and conclusion of bilateral agreements. IOM has offered to the Georgian authorities its expertise and operational presence in many of the countries of origin concerned to seek headway. This visit of the delegation from Bangladesh was the second landmark in succession to the visit of a Sri Lankan delegation in June 2018. IOM has scheduled more such visits in the near future.

This activity has been implemented as part of the EU-funded project “Sustaining Border Management and Migration Governance in Georgia” (SBMMG).