Europe — Flow Monitoring Surveys in Italy in 2020

The FMS are part of the IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) activities in the Mediterranean region and started in October 2015 as part of IOM’s research on populations on the move to Europe. FMS are analysed to provide information on profiles, transit routes and vulnerabilities of respondents.

In 2020, data collection took place in Italy and Spain between November and December, with a total of 601 surveys completed. FMS are anonymous and voluntary.

As IOM could have access to a limited amount of locations for logistical and COVID-19 related restrictions in place, the sample is not random and not representative of the whole population of arrivals by sea to Italy. Eighty per cent of the surveys covered migrants crossing the Central Mediterranean from Libya, 7% of the surveys were with migrants departed from Tunisia and the remaining 13% respondents departed from the coasts of Turkey or Greece. Sudan, Bangladesh, Pakistan were the main countries of origin of respondents (16%, 15% and 9%, respectively), followed by other 20 different countries. Female respondents were mostly from Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Tunisia. Most children between 14 and 17 years were from Guinea, Pakistan, Eritrea and Bangladesh.