Abstract: This paper continues the study of non-general type subvarieties begun in a joint paper with Schneider and Sommese [14]. We prove uniruledness of a projective manifold containing a submanifold not of general type whose normal bundle has positivity properties and study moreover the rational quotient. We also relate the fundamental groups and a prove a cohomological criterion for a manifold to be rationally connected (weak version of a conjecture of Mumford).