Re\turn

In 2025, tens of millions of people are away from their home. They fled, left, were driven out. Some ended up in Europe, hoping for peace, opportunities, a future. Many eventually returned voluntarily because staying was not an option.

On behalf of Fedasil, photographer Carl De Keyzer and journalist Catherine Vuylsteke portray thirteen men, women and families from Armenia, Brazil, Rwanda, El Salvador and the Balkans. They decided that returning was the only way forward, even though that decision was painful.

Re\turn shows the faces and stories behind the figures. Lives on the way, between hope and loss. Returning is rarely the end of a story.

Voluntary return

Since 2001, the federal agency Fedasil has been coordinating the Belgian voluntary return programmes, together with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and Caritas International. Before departure, returnees receive a personal accompaniment and a limited return grant; after arrival, they receive practical reintegration assistance. Local partners help them find accommodation, start a business or with the treatment of their medical problems. In 2024, reintegration assistance was provided in no fewer than 76 countries. Half of the returnees were staying without a legal permit in our country, more than a quarter were rejected asylum seekers, and the rest were still in the asylum procedure.

This exhibition shows how returnees are starting over in their country of origin.