The institutional aspect of return migration has received little attention in the theoretical and empirical literature on return migration. This research fills the apparent lacuna by unearthing institutional challenges to multi‐stakeholder coordination, at different spatial levels in crisis situations and negative effects on reintegration of forcibly returned migrants. We use the evacuation of Ghanaian migrants from Libya who occupied very low socio‐economic positions, experienced racism and discrimination, including physical attacks and arbitrary arrests in 2011, as a case study to understand institutional challenges to forced return when migrants’ carefully tailored plans are thrown into disarray and they are forced to return unprepared. This study employed mainly qualitative research methods among six different categories of actors and engaged an adaptation of Cassarino's “returnee's preparedness framework” to expand theoretical understandings of return migration from the institutional perspective and to highlight what can go wrong when institutions are unprepared for involuntary returnees.

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