IOM COVID-19: Impact On Key Locations of Internal Mobility - Bi-Weekly Analysis, 23 September 2020
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Executive Summary
The current COVID-19 pandemic has affected global mobility both in terms of international mobility restrictions and restrictive measures on internal movement. To better understand how COVID-19 affects global mobility, IOM has developed a global mobility database to gather, map and track data on these restrictive measures impacting movement. This report provides a global perspective of the COVID-19-related measures and restrictions imposed by countries, territories and areas impacting internal movements, as well as the resulting effects on stranded migrants and other population categories. The information in this report relies on a compilation of inputs from multiple sources, including from IOM staff in the field, DTM reports on flow monitoring and mobility tracking.
Data has been collected between 13 March and 18 September 2020. Data for 9 per cent of the assessed locations has been updated since the beginning of September, while data for 17 per cent of the assessed locations has been updated in August, with 8 per cent of the assessed locations that have been updated in July, while 22 per cent was last updated in June. The data for the remaining assessed internal locations was last updated before June (specifically, 16% in May, 20% in April and 10% in March).
Through this exercise, IOM collected information about 180 C/T/As across all IOM regions. Among these, 44 per cent (80 C/T/As) declared a national emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic and 76 per cent introduced some sort of mobility restriction. Some restrictive measures that have been adopted are quarantine for all international arrivals (63%) and the suspension of the issuance of new visas (38%). On the other hand, some facilitations for stranded populations have also been adopted, such as the automatic extension of expired visas and working permits (28%) and the removal of fines for visa overstays and expired residency and working permits (33%).
Key Locations of Internal Mobility (Internal Transit Points, Areas of Interest, and Sites with Populations of Interest):
• IOM assessed 1,480 key locations across 135 C/T/As, including 383 internal transit points, 472 areas of interest and 625 sites with population of interest.
• Assessed internal transit points and areas of interest were mostly situated in Asia and the Pacific, while the highest number of assessed sites with population of interest were from the East and Horn of Africa and the European Economic Area.
• 87 per cent of the assessed internal transit points were fully operational, with 7 and 3 per cent which were respectively either fully closed or partially operational. Moreover, 49 per cent of the assessed internal transit points had introduced medical measures within the location.
• The most common restrictive measures in place in the assessed areas of interest included the cancellation of public events (20% of the assessed areas), school closure (20%), restricted operating hours for public establishments (17%) and alternative working arrangements (17%). Moreover, non-essential movements outside home were restricted in 6 per cent of the assessed areas while lockdown or quarantine measures were enforced by police or military in 10 per cent of the cases.
• Stranded foreign nationals were reported in 62 per cent of the assessed sites with populations of interest, while in 21 and 15 per cent of cases respectively nationals and foreign nationals on their way to their country of origin were reported to be present in the assessed sites with population of interest.