Women on the move

IOM report says more women than men in East Africa leave home

Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | One in two people who left their home countries in the East and Horn of Africa last year was a woman or girl according to a new report published Sept.8 by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) —the United Nations agency in charge of migration.

The report titled, “A Region on the Move 2021” notes that while migration in other parts of the continent is predominantly male, in the East and Horn of Africa region, 50.4% of migrants are women and girls.

Globally, male immigrants have always outnumbered female immigrants, and as of mid-2020, the shares were 52.1% for males and 47.9% for females. But, the report notes that the East and Horn of Africa region is an exception.

This fact, the report notes, can be largely attributed to the prevailing forced migration dynamics in this region (and across Africa) whereby females account for the largest share of refugees and asylum seekers while labour migration remains dominated by males.

It notes that women now account for the highest number of refugees and asylum seekers, as they are more likely to be forcibly displaced, while men are more likely to migrate irregularly in search for employment opportunities.

According to the report, while labour migration, through both regular and irregular channels, has continued to drive regional mobility dynamics, forced migration trends have become more prevalent.

The report also reveals that trafficking in persons is of concern with IOM identifying 3000 cases of trafficking from the region, over the last decade.  Most trafficked persons were identified as being from Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia with women and girls being the most affected victims at 78% compared to men and boys (22%).

The report is aimed at capturing migration trends and providing evidence-based analysis that improves our understanding of mobility in the region and promotes the systemic use of data to guide advocacy and policy level discussion.

“We hope that the combined effect of a better understanding of the magnitude of the challenges we are facing and the renewed commitment to collaborate in collecting accurate and disaggregated data, will soon lead to more advanced and evidence-based migration policies, better protection of migrants’ rights and improved assistance to those in need,” said Mohamed Abdiker, the IOM Regional Director for the East and Horn of Africa.

The report found that most international migrants in the region reside in Uganda (1.7 million) followed by Ethiopia (1.1 million) and Kenya (1.1 million). Meanwhile, over 67% of the immigrants (4.1 million) originated from countries within the region mainly from South Sudan (1.6 million) and Somalia (974,000), while 33% (2.1 million) came from outside the region, largely the Democratic Republic of Congo (1 million) and The Sudan (702,000).

Conflict and insecurity

Overall, migration in the East and Horn of Africa region which comprises Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania—has become more humanitarian in nature.

Last year, this region was home to 13.2 million forced migrants, including 9.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 3.6 million refugees and asylum seekers. Conflict and insecurity remain the biggest drivers of displacement in the region. According to the report, around 60% of the migrant people in the region are refugees and asylum seekers.

The report names the eruption of conflict in northern Ethiopia in late 2020, the political stalemate due to postponed elections in Somalia, renewed conflicts across South Sudan and the civil war which broke out in neighbouring Sudan at the end of 2021, having contributed to a worsening humanitarian situation and a fragile regional stability.

The region was already grappling with devastating floods and a severe drought in 2021 and by April, this year, humanitarian agencies had shown between 12 million and 14 million people to be severely food insecure in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.

According to the report, even after more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic that impacted mobility and migration across the region, the will to migrate has not ceased. Ethiopian, Somali and Eritrean nationals continue to move extra regionally towards the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, South Africa and Europe through Libya.

“These irregular journeys remain fraught with peril as migrants use seas, pass through war-torn countries and continuously face the risk of detention and deportation along the way or at destination,” the report reads in part.

Record numbers

The number of estimated emigrants from the East and Horn of Africa region reached 9.1 million at mid-2020, which is more than double the number recorded 10 years earlier at mid-2000 (4.4 million) and a 28% increase from mid-2015 (7.1 million).

Of those, 46% lived in the region (4.1 million) while 54% lived outside the region (4.9 million), mostly in other regions in Africa (42%), in Europe (24%), in Northern America (18%) and in Western Asia, which includes the Gulf Council Countries and Middle Eastern countries (13%). In all, an estimated 68% of emigrants from the East and Horn of Africa region (or 6.2 million) lived in another African country.

As of mid-2020, more than half (51%) of the East and Horn of Africa emigrant population came from South Sudan (2.6 million) and Somalia (2 million) as they both were the origin countries of the largest refugee populations in the region.

A significant share of South Sudanese emigrants moved within the region (60%), followed by northern Africa (34%), while Somali emigrants had a larger presence outside the region (52%), particularly in Europe (19%), Western Asia (15%), other regions in Africa (10%) and North America (7%).

According to the report, regional mobility has increasingly been characterised by forced migration due to widespread conflict and violence, and political persecution, human rights violations, climatic rights events and harsh environmental conditions.

As a result, the region hosts a very large population of IDP refugees and asylum seekers make up around 60% of the international migrant population in this region. Labour migration—both regular and irregular—also constitutes an important feature of the East and Horn of Africa migration landscape.

This type of migration is prompted by multiple socio-economic factors, such as wide income inequalities, poverty and unemployment as well as the presence and attractiveness of economic hubs that create employment opportunities and fuel rural-urban mobility.

The estimated number of international migrants (or immigrants) in the East and Horn of Africa stood at 6.2 million as of mid-2020 which represented an 80% increase from mid-2000 (3.5 million) and a 16% increase from mid-2015 (5.4 million).

The proportion of East and Horn of Africa international migrants as a share of the regional population remained relatively stable over the past decade. The proportion was 1.9% at mid-2020 (with a regional population of 331 million); which is similar to the corresponding proportion across Africa (1.9%) but much lower than the corresponding proportion globally (3.6%).

However, unlike any other regions in the world, several countries in the East and Horn of Africa, along with being major destinations for refugees and asylum seekers fleeing conflict and looking for safety and work, are also major countries of origin for refugees and asylum seekers, the report finds.

South Sudan is one such example. In 2021, the country was home to 325, 000 refugees and asylum seekers, while nearly 2.3 million South Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers were hosted abroad. This unique fact highlights how refugee flows are primarily contained within the region.

Economic considerations

The drought, mainly in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, has also been a key factor driving migration and displacement in the region. These countries have been experiencing the worst drought seen in four decades and these exceptional conditions resemble the trends observed during the 2010-2011 famine and the 2016-2017 drought emergencies in the Horn of Africa.

The region hosts around a quarter of all international migrants living in Africa and the estimated number of immigrants residing in the region has nearly doubled in the last 20 years. Migration to, from and within the region, has always been characterised by variety.

According to the World Bank’s income level classification, the emigrant population from the East and Horn of Africa region had a large presence in low-income countries (53%) in 2020, followed by high-income countries (28%), lower-middle-income countries (16%) and upper-middle-income countries (3%).

Low-income countries included the top three destination countries of emigrants from the region, namely Uganda (1.2 million), the Sudan (1.2 million) and Ethiopia (1 million), while high-income countries covered destinations such as the United States of America (714,000), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (452,000), Canada (171,000) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (164,000).

But, the presence of emigrants from the East and Horn of Africa in low-income countries has by far seen the most rapid rise from mid-2000 (1.9 million), while their presence in high-income countries has followed a gradual increase over the past 10 years, even surpassing lower-middle-income countries after mid-2005. In addition, the emigrant presence in middle-income countries has remained relatively stable and at a less significant level than in the low- and high-income countries.

Considering the humanitarian nature of the region’s international migrant stock, it is unsurprising that the largest migration corridors reflect the main refugee movements, the report notes.

Most international migratory movements were from South Sudan to Uganda (1.2 million) as these mainly represented the displaced South Sudanese population who sought refuge in Uganda.

Similarly, movements from South Sudan to the Sudan (868,000) as well as to Ethiopia (410,000), which almost entirely emanated from the same refugee crisis, represented two other important corridors in the region.

In addition, given the scale and the protraction of the humanitarian crisis in Somalia, movements from Somalia to Kenya (425,000) and to Ethiopia (411,000) were also among the largest corridors, combining forced movements and other types of migration.

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