Europe — Flow Monitoring Surveys with Migrants Transiting through the Republic of North Macedonia, Round 02 (Apr-May 2022)

This report is based on the Flow Monitoring Surveys carried out by IOM in North Macedonia in April and May 2022. A total of 180 interviews were collected in two locations – Temporary Transit Centre (TTC) Vinojug (in Gevgelija) and TTC Tabanovce (in Kumanovo). Survey data provide an insight of the profiles, intentions and needs of migrants transiting through the country. They show following:

• About 93 per cent of the respondents were nationals of seven countries – Syrian Arab Republic, Pakistan, India, Morocco, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Iraq. The structure of respondents by country of origin or habitual residence is the same as the structure by nationality. Only two respondents were internally displaced persons before leaving their origin country.
• Most respondents were male (96%) and young persons (average age 27.7 years). Out of the top 7 nationalities surveyed, the youngest were respondents from Morocco (average age 22.8 years) and oldest were those from Bangladesh and Iraq (30.6 and 30.7 years of average age, respectively).
• Three quarters (75.5%) of respondents were single at the moment of the interview, and 15.6 per cent of them had children. About 23.9 per cent of the respondents had primary level of education, 65.5 per cent secondary and only 0.6 per cent had tertiary level of education. About 46 per cent of respondents were unemployed at the time of departure from countries of origin, whereas about 15 per cent were employed or self-employed. Hereof, economic reasons (51.1%), followed by war or conflict (35.6%), were the initial first main reasons for leaving their countries of origin.
• For 93 respondents (51.7%) the country of departure is different from the country of origin. About 13 per cent of the respondents travelled alone, while 87 per cent travelled with a group.
• Three quarters of the respondents (75%) left the departure country more than 1 year ago (20.6% of them, more than 3 years ago). Seventy-one respondents (39.4%) left the departure country in the last year (5.6% of them, less than 2 weeks ago). Survey data confirm a relatively long stay of migrants in transit countries, to work and collect money to travel onwards. Walking on foot was the main mode of transport to enter North Macedonia, were most of the respondents (99%) reported they have stayed for less than two weeks at the time of the survey.
• The journey of the respondents was quite costly. Overall amount paid individually since the beginning of the journey, for 73.9 per cent of the respondents, was between 1,000 and 5,000 USD. Most (91.1%) of the respondents reported having paid for the journey with their own savings only.
• Germany remains the country of intended destination for most respondents. Its share as final intended destination is higher at the time of departure (44.4%) than at the time of interview (35%). Similarly, there are changes related to other final destinations. For 53.3 per cent of the respondents, the main reasons for choosing the intended destination are related to appealing socio-economic conditions and for 26.7 per cent are linked to the access to asylum procedures.
• Regarding COVID-19, 178 (98.9%) respondents were aware of the pandemic. Most of them (82.8%) received information from media, followed by family / friends (72.2%), local / national authorities (69.4%), civil society / NGOs (63.3%), medical staff (20.6%) and UN or other international organizations (2.8%).
• Almost all of respondents (178, 98.9%) did not consider the option of returning to their origin country during their journey.