Funded by Swiss Confederation and the State Secretariat for Migration Implemented by IOM Greece

On December 2014, the cooperation of the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration with the Office in Greece of International Organization for Migration was announced. The Swiss Confederation funds the assistance in kind for the reintegration plan of 100 migrants who registered to the Voluntary Return Program of IOM Greece.

#CHRestartbyGreece is the online message that connects these stories of Reintegration, with the hope that they could be the source of inspiration and courage for those who have doubts about their decision to return.

Moving on means Return. Means Restart.

For Lakhtam time at work has a specific value. Either you are paid for the work you do, or you are moving on. This is how he ended up in Greece.  In Morocco he worked 10 years as a farmer. After a year of poor production, he waited no longer. He moved on. He decided to migrate to any country where his efforts would pay his living. 10 years ago he arrived in Greece, and not much time passed until he found his first job: the cleaning of the pool at a quite popular hotel. “ I learned to speak French, Filipino, Italian, Albanian.  I practically lived in the hotel. After 10 years and they still called me “the pool-boy”! ‘, he recalls. The money he earned were quite enough for his stay in Greece and also for supporting the small family he created in Morocco. “My wife would wait for me, my child would wait for me”. But during the years of the crisis though in Greece, the hotel business met financial difficulties and many employees were fired. “Spending all these years in the hotel, I could not actually understand the complete situation of the country. I believed that I could easily find another job. I found myself homeless for 2 years. It was pointless”. As soon as he heard from a friend, about IOM services and the reintegration assistance given by the Swiss Government at the beginning of 2015, he registered for the program. “1350 euros in Morocco, are serious money. I would buy sheep, I would work constantly and never risk again the nutrition of my family. My wife doesn’t have to wait now. My child doesn’t have to wait. Moving on, moving forward for me meant returning to my family. This financial assistance made that a reality”.