Directorate for Repatriation Facilitation

The Directorate for Repatriation Facilitation (DOVT) is responsible for preparing the departure from the Netherlands of asylum seekers (who have exhausted all appeals) and other foreign nationals who are not entitled to a residence permit in the Netherlands.  

In local consultations on return (LTO), the DT&V, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), and the police work together on the preparation and realisation of the departure of these foreign nationals from the Netherlands. Other relevant agencies, such as the IND, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), and the guardianship organisation NIDOS, are also involved in this process. The aim is that the foreign national departs voluntarily and that there is no need to proceed to a forced departure. Most of the foreign nationals, who leave the Netherlands under supervision, leave voluntarily.

Target audience

The Directorate for Repatriation Facilitation focuses on foreign nationals who don't have a residence permit (anymore). The asylum seekers stay at an asylum seekers' centre or a shelter of a municipality. The background, origin and age of the foreign nationals differs. Some have applied for asylum at an earlier stage, but did not get one. The DT&V also handles with foreign nationals whose residence permit has been revoked. The people of the Return Facilitation Directorate liaises with chain partners.

Residence locations

People of the Directorate for Repatriation Facilitation accompany foreign nationals in person in the preparation of their departure, if necessary. Not every foreign national who has to leave the country. are immediately willing to do so. If somebody keeps refusing to depart, the departure supervisor can take measures.

For example, a foreign national can be transferred to another kind of accommodation where there's more pressure to return. When someone doesn't cooperate in returning, that person will become the responsilibty of the the Directorate for Supervision and Measures to initiate forced departure.