Osita Osemene, others to speak at MPI Europe webinar

Osita Osemene, Project Director, Patriotic Citizen Initiatives (PCI) Nigeria, is among the  experts who will speaking at the MPI Europe Webinar scheduled for Tuesday January 13, 2026. 

Other speakers include  Elena Cavagni, Project Leader, Dutch Council for Refugees, Ravenna Sohst, Policy Analyst, MPI Europe and Claudia van der Horst, Senior Advisor, Knowledge and Strategy, Repatriation and Departure Service, Ministry of Asylum and Migration, The Netherlands.

The webinar co- sponsored by Migration Policy Institute will be moderated by  Camille Le Coz, Director, MPI Europe.

According to the organisers, “Counseling and reintegration assistance have become central tools for European governments aiming to incentivize and support the uptake of assisted return among migrants facing a return order. In recent years, the European Union has allocated more resources to strengthening these mechanisms, and Dutch policymakers have similarly undertaken efforts to encourage assisted return. Yet the actual influence of actions on migrants’ return decisions remains widely debated. New evidence from the Netherlands offers a clearer picture of how these forms of support function in practice, what shapes migrants’ decision-making, and what kinds of interventions make a meaningful difference.

“This Migration Policy Institute Europe webinar will explore the findings of its new study for the Research and Data Centre (WODC) of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security. The study analyses nearly 118,000 case files from the Dutch Government’s Repatriation and Departure Service (DTenV), combined with interviews with dozens of experts as well as Iraqi and Nigerian migrants who left the Netherlands after receiving a return order.” 

The organisers noted that the speakers will discuss how timing, counseling approaches, and partnerships shape the potential for counseling to create space for meaningful conversation and results in the returns space. They also will focus on practical steps to strengthen investments in this area.