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When Omar Bella Diallo boarded the plane to go home west african In the nation of Guinea in July, an exhausted 24-year-old man thought his ordeal of migration was over.
He spent almost a year trying to reach EuropeHe said he was attacked by police and defrauded for money as he crossed Mali, Algeria and Niger, at one point limping among corpses in the desert. After watching fellow migrants die of hunger and exhaustion, he gave up.
He is one of thousands of Africans returning home with the help of the international organization migrationBecause Europe spends millions of dollars to stop migrants before they reach its shores. The EU-funded IOM program pays for return flights and promises follow-up assistance.
But migrants told The Associated Press that the U.N.-affiliated organization’s promises have not been kept, leaving them traumatized, in debt and family shame. Frustration may fuel new migration efforts.
The AP spoke to three returnees in Gambia and three in Guinea and were shown a WhatsApp group of more than 50 members that was set up based on returnees’ frustrations with IOM. He described months of reaching out to IOM without a reply.
Diallo said he told IOM he wanted to start a small business. But all she got was the phone number of an IOM counselor and a five-day orientation course on accountability, management and personal development. He said many returnees had trouble understanding it due to their low education levels.
“Yesterday, too, I called him,” Diallo said. “They said that for now, we have to wait until they call us. Every time, if I call them, they tell me the same thing.” He said he sought medical attention after suffering a leg injury while attempting to migrate, but was told it was impossible.
Being the eldest child of a single mother, the responsibility of supporting relatives is very high.
“If there is not that much money, you are also the head of the family,” he said.
Lakhs spent but little investigation
The IOM program is almost entirely funded by the EU and was launched in 2016. Between 2022 and 2025, it repatriated more than 100,000 sub-Saharan migrants from North Africa and Niger.
IOM said 58% of the $380 million budget for that period is allocated to post-withdrawal assistance.
Francois Xavier Ada of the IOM regional office in West Africa told the AP that more than 90,000 people have begun the return, and 60,000 have completed, adding that the reintegration process is “tailored to individual needs.” Ada said it can support “anything from housing, medical assistance or psychosocial services to business grants, vocational training and job placement.”
The migrants told the AP they had not received any of them.
Aida said IOM was “concerned” to learn of people waiting and “pleased to see these cases.” He said delays may occur due to high caseload or incomplete documentation, and medical assistance is not guaranteed.
Experts said little is known about how EU money helps returnees. The EU body, the European Court of Auditors, audited the first phase of the program between 2016 and 2021 and said it failed to demonstrate sustainable reintegration results, monitoring was “insufficient to prove results” and the EU “could not prove value for money.”
“EU policy is obsessed with returns,” said Josephine Libel of the Brussels-based European Council on Refugees and Exiles. “The question of how this support actually helps people in very vulnerable situations receives little public scrutiny, which is due to the fact that there is a lack of transparency and accountability in how EU funding works outside the EU.”
The EU did not respond to questions on the details of the budget other than to reiterate IOM’s statements.
Mustafa Darbo, a Gambian journalist who interviewed more than 50 people who returned to investigate the IOM program, said they had to wait for long periods of time, often nearly a year, and the support they eventually received did not match their skills and ambitions.
“IOM is donor-based,” he told the AP. “Their primary focus is not to help these people, their primary focus is to tick their boxes.”
plagued by shame and stigma
The IOM program coincides with other efforts by Europe to stem migration, including paying some African governments to stop migrants, an approach condemned by human rights groups who accuse African authorities of complicity in abuses.
Europe’s efforts appear to be working. In the first eight months of 2025, it recorded 112,000 “irregular” crossings, 20% less than the same period last year, and a drop of more than 50% from two years earlier.
Experts say that although IOM’s return programs help people escape inhumane treatment, it is often impossible to provide promised follow-up support because state services in most migrants’ home countries are poorly functioning.
“The biggest gap is support for returnees to reintegrate, providing access to social protection and labor markets,” said Camille Le Coz, director of the Brussels-based Migration Policy Institute.
Kabinate Kante, a 20-year-old from Guinea who dreamed of becoming a footballer in Germany, spent almost two years trying to reach Europe. They said they were captured at sea and thrown into the desert, and even now they wake up at night screaming.
With the help of IOM, he returned to Guinea in July. He said he wanted to learn to drive a bulldozer but IOM ignored his calls and when he went to their office, they asked him to stop calling.
He set up a WhatsApp group with over 50 other returned and frustrated migrants. He also records TikTok videos warning against the dangerous route to Europe.
But he has no way to repay his parents, who supported his journey by sending money to pay smugglers and bribed officials.
“Right now, I’m not doing anything,” he said, hanging his head in embarrassment.
‘Going on an adventure’
Like many sub-Saharan African countries, Guinea has rich natural resources, including the world’s largest iron ore reserves. But experts say poor governance and exploitation by foreign companies have left most of the population destitute.
According to the World Food Programme, more than half of Guinea’s population of 15 million are experiencing “unprecedented levels of poverty”, and cannot read or write. The official monthly minimum wage is less than $65. Most people work in the informal economy and earn little.
“People with degrees work here as taxi drivers,” Diallo said. “If there were job opportunities in the country, like other places, everyone would live here.”
Diallo and Kante said they are not planning to “go on an adventure” any time soon – a term widely used in Europe to describe the migration route.
But that’s mostly because they don’t have money. They dream of working legally in Europe, but the visa process can cost hundreds of dollars, and applicants from sub-Saharan countries have high rejection rates.
Elhadj Mohamed Diallo, director of the Guinean Organization for the Fight against Irregular Migration, is a former migrant who reached Libya before being returned. He now works with IOM on reintegration activities but has expressed doubts about their ability to prevent returnees from re-migrating.
He said he doesn’t blame them because life at home becomes more difficult.
“We’re not helping them so they can live. We’re helping them so they can take control of their lives again,” he said. “Migration is a natural thing. Stopping a person is like stopping the tide. When you stop water, the water will find its way out.”
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