Flow Monitoring

The Flow Monitoring Registry (FMR) of the IOM Yemen Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) monitors the arrival of migrants along Yemen’s southern coastal border and the repatriation of Yemeni nationals along its northern border with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Enumerators at Flow Monitoring Points (FMPs) record the arrival of migrants and the return of Yemeni nationals to identify various migration patterns and provide quantitative estimates of the irregular migrant population entering the country. It’s crucial to understand that the FMR does not capture all migration flows in Yemen; instead, it provides indicative insights into migration trends based on an unknown total number of migrants arriving at FMPs during a specific time frame. Certain migrant arrival points may have limited data collection due to access constraints.

In August 2023, a joint military campaign was initiated to curb the influx of migrants into Yemen, primarily those en route to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. This operation targeted the coast of Lahj governorate, a major entry point for a large number of migrants (up to 15,714 migrants in March 2023). Military forces detained smugglers and chased their boats, leading to a gradual decrease in migrant flow through this coast, which eventually stopped completely over the last six months. There was a single exception in mid-December 2023 when a boat brought 110 migrants ashore.

In April 2024, the IOM Yemen DTM reported 1,479 migrants entering Yemen, a 23 percent decrease from the total figure reported in the previous month (1,930 migrants). All migrants left from Bari region in Somalia (1,479) and arrived in Shabwah governorate in Yemen, which typically serves as a key entry point for migrants leaving Somalia. Moreover, migrants leaving from Djibouti rarely choose Shabwah due to the significant distance between the two locations.

Although all migrants arrived through Shabwah coastal area, the number of migrants entering through same area decreased by 18 per cent in April (1,479) compared to March 2024 (1,800). Among the total migrants recorded, 22 per cent were children, 15 per cent were women, and 63 per cent were men. According to data collected for April 2024, 74 per cent of migrants stated that conflict was the primary reason for them leaving their country of origin.

The DTM team identified 5,046 Yemeni returnees in April 2024, a 19 percent increase compared to the number of returnees in March (4,226 individuals). Additionally, the team also recorded total of 191 migrants that were deported from Oman back to Deifen Point in Shahan district of Al Maharah governorate, Yemen. All deported migrants from Oman were Ethiopian nationals.

The worsening humanitarian crisis in Yemen has compelled many migrants to make difficult decision to return to their home countries in the Horn of Africa, some have reportedly been deported by authorities. In April 2024, the DTM recorded a total of 819 migrants leaving Yemen either voluntarily or were deported by boat from Yemen. This group was composed of 91 per cent men, eight per cent women, and less than one per cent children.

Furthermore, in April 2024, the Djibouti DTM team reported a total of 631 migrants (93% men, 4% women, and 3% children) arrived in Djibouti from Yemen after undertaking a perilous journey back home. These figures underscore the significant challenges migrants in Yemen face and the desperate circumstances that have led them to risk dangerous sea voyages.

Forced returns of Haitians to Haiti is one of the main human mobility trends in the country. In search of a better life, many Haitians attempt to leave the country through regular or irregular pathways. In addition to risking their lives, those who engage in irregular pathways are often forcibly returned to Haiti by their destination or transit countries.

In 2023, more than 216,000 people were returned to Haiti by different countries. Many are returned after living several months or years outside Haiti and face challenges reintegrating into their communities. Furthermore, security and socioeconomic conditions in Haiti exacerbate these reintegration challenges. Hence, even after being forcibly returned in the country, many people engage again, sometimes multiple times, in irregular migration, in search of a better life out of Haiti.

This report provides insights on the profiles of Haitians who were forcibly returned in 2023. It presents their socio demographic and economic profiles, their migration experiences and their migration intentions. Information was collected through individual surveys conducted with a sample of returnees. Surveys were conducted upon their arrival in the country (please refer to the last section of the report for more information on methodology).

The goal of this research is to inform the development or adjustment of migration governance policies as well as transition and development strategies to ensure that migration is a choice, rather than the consequence of a constraint, and that once engaged, it is safe and carried out with human dignity, and contributes to the socioeconomic development and well-being of migrants and their community of origin and of destination.

According to the latest available figures from the Turkish Presidency of Migration Management (PMM), there are more than 4.5 million foreign nationals present in Turkish territory, 3.4 million of whom are seeking international protection. Most are Syrians (3,120,430 individuals) who are granted temporary protection status. In addition, international protection applicants from countries including Iraq, Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran constitute another group of foreign nationals. According to PMM, there were 19,017 international protection applicants present in Türkiye in 2023, published annually.

Moreover, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there were 296,6853 refugees and asylum-seekers in Türkiye as of 2023. Since December 2023 the number of Syrians residing in camps has decreased by 4,085.

In addition, there are 1,129,958 foreign nationals present in Türkiye, holding residence permits. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, this is an increase of 22,926 individuals. According to PMM, 58,760 migrants in irregular situation of different nationalities were apprehended in Türkiye in the first quarter. This figure was 88,437 in the previous reporting period (Q4) of 2023.

En el último trimestre del 2023, en la ciudad de Desaguadero (Puno), localizada en la zona fronteriza con Bolivia (al sureste del Perú), el Ministerio del Interior (Mininter) en coordinación con la Organización Internacional para las Migraciones (OIM) y la Municipalidad Distrital de Desaguadero reforzaron acciones para combatir la trata de personas a través de la instalación de la Red Distrital contra la Trata de Personas y Tráfico Ilícito de Migrantes de Desaguadero (octubre, 2023).

A nivel migratorio, el 10 de noviembre y luego de seis meses de proceso de regularización, culminó el plazo para que las personas extranjeras en situación migratoria irregular puedan acceder y tramitar el permiso temporal de permanencia (CPP) (Superintendencia Nacional de Migraciones, 2023). En esa línea, la Policía Nacional del Perú ha continuado con los operativos de control de identidad en los diversos terminales de buses.

IOM Afghanistan's DTM Flow Monitoring activity, initiated at the beginning of 2024, seeks to quantify and better understand the mobility dynamics at Afghanistan’s borders. On 10 January 2024, DTM began deploying field teams at four border crossing points with the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRN) and Pakistan (PAK), expanding to another border crossing point Ghulam Khan as of 11 February (see map below for the locations of all five crossing points), to conduct two interlinked exercises. The first is a headcount of all individuals entering or leaving Afghanistan (including returnees), also called Flow Monitoring Counting (FMC), to gauge flow volume. The second is a survey of randomly selected Afghan national individuals or groups entering or leaving Afghanistan, also called the Flow Monitoring Survey (FMS), to understand the profiles, motivations, and vulnerabilities of the target population. The inflow from Pakistan increased over the monitoring period. This may be related to media reports and speculation about a potential resumption of the repatriation process, targeting primarily Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) holders, starting from April 15, 2024. However, according to the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs as of April 26, the repatriation process has not yet begun. Additionally, the Government of Pakistan recently extended the validity of 1.3 million PoR cards for Afghan refugees in Pakistan up to June 30, with their repatriation planned for after the repatriation of ACC holders (Voice of America News). This snapshot provides key findings combining various IOM data sources, including DTM Afghanistan’s FMC and FMS activities, DTM Pakistan’s Flow Monitoring of Afghan returnees, and IOM Afghanistan’s Cross-Border Post-Arrival Humanitarian Assistance (CB-PAHA) program, for the period 28 April to 4 May 2024. For more information about methodology, see the section in the last page of this report titled “IOM INFLOW DATA.” 

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Pakistan collects data on the outflows of Afghans at the Torkham (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Badini, Bahramcha and Chaman (Balochistan) border crossing points (BCPs) to better understand the movements of Afghans returning to Afghanistan. The data presented below is harmonised with those from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who also cover Ghulam Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).

On 26 September 2023, the Ministry of Interior in Pakistan announced its decision to enact its “Illegal Foreigners’ Repatriation Plan (IFRP)”. Between 16 and 30 April 2024, 16,547 Afghan nationals returned to Afghanistan, including 9,349 through the Torkham BCP, 6,945 through the Chaman BCP, 253 through the Ghulam Khan BCP, while no Afghan nationals returned through the Badini and Bahramcha BCPs. In addition, border authorities deported 518 individuals due to a lack of valid documentation. Since 1 January 2024, IOM identified 79,624 returns at the four BCPs.

The quarterly report is developed by combining secondary data obtained from different sources, including government agencies, international organizations, non-profit entities, and other types of organizations. More specifically, the report on the fourth quarter of 2023 was derived from data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Bureau of National Statistics, and Border Service of Kazakhstan. The data was compiled through a combination of published sources and direct requests to the partners and government agencies.

• Overall exit movements from Ethiopia increased by 18% in the last month, marking the highest number of movements tracked since 2018, and an increase of 1% compared with the previous highest figure reported in December 2023 (18,119).

• The number of movements leaving Ethiopia due to conflict, violence or persecution multiplied more than eightfold between February (84) and March (731), which may be attributed to clashes between the Fano militia and government forces. In fact, all movements tracked due to conflict, violence or persecution departed the Amhara region, from where one in ten was looking for safety.

• Returns to Obock and Tadjourah decreased by 32% in the last month. This may be linked with the period of Ramadan, where the number of patrolling authorities in Yemen decreases and crackdowns on movements toward Saudi Arabia generally easen.

• The number of women (+9%) and children (+72%) tracked in Bossaso increased by more than a quarter (+27%). This increase was acute in girls, which more than doubled (+166%, from 121 to 322), while the number of boys increased by 44% (from 397 to 570).

• More than 400 migrants (385 Ethiopian, 25 Yemeni, and 1 Somali) were deported from Oman to Yemen, while in Ta’iz Governorate, a truck heading towards the north of the country that was smuggling 109 Ethiopian migrants was intercepted at a security checkpoint.

The COVID-19 pandemic marked an unprecedented shock to human mobility, shuttering borders and restricting movements in ways not seen in our lifetime. This report reflects the first attempt to assess how human movements has changed in the wake of this seismic event, by analysing Flow Monitoring data from the International Organization for Migration that surveys migrants at formal and informal border crossings. This report sketches how movements have fully recovered from pandemic-era restrictions and how they are being shaped by climate and displacement shocks through seven cases studies that cover a wide range of migrant destinations. This report is the third in a three-part series on the impact of COVID-19 on human mobility. 

IOM Afghanistan's DTM Flow Monitoring activity, initiated at the beginning of 2024, seeks to quantify and better understand the mobility dynamics at Afghanistan’s borders. On 10 January 2024, DTM began deploying field teams at four border crossing points with the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRN) and Pakistan (PAK), expanding to another border crossing point Ghulam Khan as of 11 February (see map below for the locations of all five crossing points), to conduct two interlinked exercises. The first is a headcount of all individuals entering or leaving Afghanistan (including returnees), also called Flow Monitoring Counting (FMC), to gauge flow volume. The second is a survey of randomly selected Afghan national individuals or groups entering or leaving Afghanistan, also called the Flow Monitoring Survey (FMS), to understand the profiles, motivations, and vulnerabilities of the target population. The inflow from Pakistan increased over the monitoring period. This may be related to media reports and speculation about a potential resumption of the repatriation process, targeting primarily Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) holders, starting from April 15, 2024. However, according to the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs as of April 26, the repatriation process has not yet begun. Additionally, the Government of Pakistan recently extended the validity of 1.3 million PoR cards for Afghan refugees in Pakistan up to June 30, with their repatriation planned for after the repatriation of ACC holders (Voice of America News). This snapshot provides key findings combining various IOM data sources, including DTM Afghanistan’s FMC and FMS activities, DTM Pakistan’s Flow Monitoring of Afghan returnees, and IOM Afghanistan’s Cross-Border Post-Arrival Humanitarian Assistance (CB-PAHA) program, for the period 21 to 27 April 2024. For more information about methodology, see the section in the last page of this report titled “IOM INFLOW DATA.”