International Organization for Migration (IOM) as the European Migration Network (EMN) Coordinator for the Slovak Republic organised in the framework of the Presidency of Slovakia in the Council of the EU an international conference on Rethinking Returns from the EU: Sustainable Returns and Cooperation with Countries of Origin, taking place on 6-7 July 2016 in Bratislava.

The following topics were addressed in several panels:

• Return as part of the migration management;
• Enhancing cooperation with countries of return from the EU perspective;
• Practical cooperation in achieving sustainable return and reintegration;
• Perspectives from countries of origin on return and reintegration;
• Approaches to rejected asylum seekers and migrants with challenges to return.

The topics were discussed by 22 experts from the European Commission, the EU agency Frontex, selected EU countries, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations operating in the countries of return, as well as think tanks.

Among the speakers of the conference were: European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos, IOM Director General William Lacy Swing and the Deputy Prime Minister and the Slovak Minister of Interior Robert Kaliňák.

The conference welcomed more than 100 participants from 32 countries. Among them were representatives of state institutions and national implementing authorities, embassies, Council of the EU, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations, civic initiatives, research institutes, think-tanks and universities, as well as independent experts on migration.

More information about the conference is available in English on www.emnconference.sk.