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INTRODUCTION

This report provides summary migration statistics of IGAD Member States from 2010 to 2019. The data used to generate the report was collected from the Member States as part of two initiatives: the Joint Labour Migration Program (JLMP) and the African Union - International Organization for Migration (AUIOM) Horn of Africa Initiative on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling.

Migration trends

Data from the Migration Database of the African Union Institute for Statistics (STATAFRIC) indicated that the international migrant population in Africa grew from 17.2 million in 2010 to 26.3 million in 2019, representing a 4.8 percent average annual growth rate. Seventy-seven percent of international migration in Africa in 2019 occurred among the working-age population.

According to STATAFRIC, the international migrant population grew from 3.1 million in 2010 to 6.5 million in 2019, representing a 7.4 percent average annual growth rate. Furthermore, at the end of December 2020, there were 8.9 million conflict-related internally displaced persons, 4.6 million refugees and asylum seekers, and nearly 3 million people who were newly displaced by disasters (Global Report on Internal Displacement, 2021).

The IGAD region is prone to mixed migration flows that are mainly destined for: (a) Europe through Sudan, Libya, and Egypt; (b) The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries through Djibouti, Northern Somalia, and Yemen; and (c) South Africa through Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, and Malawi.

Global, continental and regional frameworks

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) comprise 169 targets, of which eight are associated with international migration. In 2018, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees were adopted by the United Nations.
At the continental level, the African Union Commission (AUC) adopted two key instruments for better management of migration within the continent. The JLMP was adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in January 2015. The revised Migration Policy Framework for Africa and Plan of Action (MPFA 2018-30) was adopted in 2018 to provide comprehensive guidelines to assist the Member States and regional economic communities with designing and implementing migration policies. In January 2018, the African Union adopted the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons in Africa to foster more significant intra-Africa trade and labour mobility.
Migration and displacement dynamics within the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) region are addressed within the Regional Migration Policy Framework (RMPF), which was adopted in 2012 and has become the primary IGAD policy reference on migration. The RMPF acknowledges the importance of migration data as an essential component of policy formulation, with a particular focus on the collection and analysis of migration data (9.1) and strengthened regional migration data exchange (9.2).