According to art. 3.8 of the directive 2008/115 "voluntary departure" means compliance with the obligation to return within the time-limit fixed for that purpose in the return decision. Is it right to use this notion interchangeably with the notion "voluntary return"?
No they are not the same.
‘Voluntary return’ is return based on the free will of the returnee when the returnee is under no legal obligation to return, in the case of irregular migrants they have not been apprehended or those who have applied to stay and are still awaiting a decision.
‘Voluntary departure’ refers to those complying with an obligation to return.
See European Commission: European Migration Network, EMN Glossary and Thesaurus
Basically, I agree with you.
But, on the other hand, how should recital 10 of directive 2008/115 be understood (Where there are no reasons to believe that this would undermine the purpose of a return procedure, VOLUNTARY RETURN should be preferred over FORCED RETURN and a period for VOLUNTARY DEPARTURE should be granted)?
Should these three notions be understood as three separate ones, which means that there is a voluntary return, there is a voluntary departure and there is a forced return?
Or does recital 10 mean that the EU fosters voluntary returns and THIS IS WHY a period for voluntary departure should be granted where possible?
Yes, I also understand it as three different returns. First voluntary return when a person decides of their own accord that they are going to return. Voluntary departure when a person has been informed that they must leave and they comply to do so. Forced return when a person has been informed to leave but do not consent to do so and so force or coercion is used to make them return.
In recital 10 the sentence you refer to is then confusing: ‘voluntary return should be preferred over forced return and a period for voluntary departure should be granted’. It doesn’t make sense to me. I would have thought that if time is allowed for voluntary departure then it is a voluntary departure and no longer voluntary return? I would be interested to see what you find out about this?
I have heard "departure" used far more often than "return" because "return" implies that the migrant is going back to their home country, which might not always be the case. "Departure" is ultimately what the state is requiring the migrant to do, regardless of where the migrant departs to.
There is also the issue of how voluntary departure works in practice. Often times there are significant pressures put on migrants to take the option of leaving voluntarily, so much so that it is hardly voluntary. I recently heard an advocate refer to "voluntary deportation" to describe how coerced these choices often are. Of course there are legal and procedural differences between voluntary departure and deportation, but from the migrant's perspective their may be few differences in the experience.
I don't think so, you depart from one place but that does not necessarily mean you return to the place wher you come from. Of course, within EU law, one goes with the other, but I would add that, for instance, in case of asylum request, the "retun" is probably to the State where the visa was issued or where the person got in the EU and not her/his countri of origin. In the case of asylum que "voluntary" aspect would need an extra reflexetion, but that is a different debate