WUNRN
IOM – International Organization for Migration
http://www.iom.int/news/iom-launches-study-migration-trends-across-mediterranean-connecting-dots
Migration Trends Across the Mediterranean - Report
Direct Link to Full 138-Page 2015 IOM Report:
IOM Launches Study: “Migration Trends Across the Mediterranean: Connecting
the Dots”
06/23/15 - Based
on unique and in-depth qualitative research in countries along the Western and
Central Mediterranean routes, the study adds new insights to the ongoing debate
over migration across the Mediterranean.
Amongst its key finding is
that not all migrants intend to go to Europe: many have migrated within their
region first and moved on, sometimes years later, after being unable to find
the stability, safety, and opportunities they hoped for. The turmoil in Libya
has created additional pressure for migrants to leave as the risks they face in
the country become too high.
Migrants would prefer to move
regularly if the options were available to them. Instead, they are compelled to
resort to smuggling networks. The study reveals the loose, decentralized set-up
of the smuggling industry in North Africa, which challenge conventional
anti-smuggling measures.
According to Arezo Malakooti,
Director of Migration Research at Altai Consulting and the author of the study,
“The smuggling industry continues to thrive as long as there is a demand for
irregular migration and as long as there are no options for regular migration.”
The study also shows that
push factors, propelling people to leave their countries, are stronger than any
effect exerted by the ready availability of smuggling services or by rescue
operations in the Mediterranean.
“For most of the people
coming from Africa, they move out because they have problems. They would not do
this dangerous journey and come to a country where they do not speak the
language, where they are a stranger, where they are harassed and abused, for no
reason,” said a Ghanaian migrant interviewed for the study in Italy.
According to IOM’s Missing
Migrants Project 115,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean in the first
five months of 2015. In the same period, the sea had claimed more than 1,850
lives.
“It is my hope that this
report will add nuances to the ongoing political debates on both sides of the
Mediterranean and humanize the often distorted image of migrants and migration
in political, public and media discourse,” said Pasquale Lupoli, Director of
IOM’s Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa, which commissioned
the study.