Flow Monitoring

• Depuis le début des affrontements au Soudan, presque 700 000 personnes ont traversé la frontière vers le Tchad. L’OIM estime que plus de 165 499 parmi eux sont des retournés tchadiens et s’attend à ce que ce nombre passe à 204 000 d’ici fin aout 2024, en raison de la reprise du conflit au Darfour.

• En tant qu'agence principale pour la réponse aux retournés, l'OIM collabore avec un éventail de partenaires opérationnels, notamment le gouvernement du Tchad, le HCR, OCHA, la FLM, PUI, l'UNICEF, MSF, l'UNFPA, LMI, le CICR, l'IRC, ACTED, la Croix-Rouge tchadienne, HELP-Tchad, ATURAD, Concern Worldwide, COOPI, INTERSOS et PAM.

• En coordination avec la CNARR et les organisations humanitaires, l'OIM a déjà enregistré plus de 110 958 retournes et 365 ressortissants de pays tiers (Soudan du Sud, Niger, Éthiopie, République centrafricaine, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Nigéria et Ouganda) dans 43 localités de trois provinces.

• La plupart des retournés sont installés spontanément près de la frontière avec le Soudan et ont un besoin urgent de nourriture, d’eau, d’assainissement et d’hygiène, d’abris, d’articles non alimentaires, de soutien sanitaire et de protection.

• L’OIM soutient la relocalisation des retournés d’Adre vers la communauté de retournés nouvellement développée de Tongori, dans la province du Ouaddaï, où elle leur offre des abris, une assistance WASH, NFI et une assistance en matière de protection/MHPSS. Plus de 13 000 personnes ont jusqu’à présent été relocalisées. L'OIM développe également le site de Deguessa, dans la province de Sila, avec une assistance en matière d'abris, de WASH et de protection/MHPSS au profit de plus de 25 000 retournés.

• Six incendies se sont déclarés dans le village de rapatriés de Tongori, dans l'Ouaddaï, du 4 au 20 mars 2024, entraînant la destruction de plus de 170 abris et aucune victime humaine. Le CNARR mène actuellement une enquête active sur la cause de ces incendies. En collaboration avec les autorités locales, l'OIM met actuellement en place des mesures supplémentaires de sécurité incendie et de sécurité sur le site.

• L'OIM se coordonne avec les autorités locales et les représentations diplomatiques pour le retour volontaire dans leur pays d'origine des ressortissants de pays comme l'Éthiopie, le Soudan du Sud, le Nigéria, le Niger et le Cameroun, vivant auparavant au Soudan et déplacés vers l'est du Tchad.

This report presents the results of the second round of the Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) Flow Monitoring Surveys (FMS) implemented in Montenegro. The data was collected from 8 June to 28 August 2023. IOM interviewed a total of 126 respondents.
FMS provides a snapshot o f the profiles, experiences and needs of migrants residing in the Department for the Reception of Foreigners Seeking International Protection in Božaj and in the Department for the Reception of Foreigners Seeking International Protection in Spuž in Montenegro. The survey asks questions on demographics, education and employment backgrounds, the circumstances of the migration journey and migration factors, as well as future intentions.

According to the latest available gures from the Turkish Presidency of Migration Management (PMM), there are more than 4.5 million foreign nationals present in Türkiye, 3.4 million of whom are seeking international protection. Most are Syrians (3,120,430 individuals) who have been granted temporary protection status. In addition, international protection holders from countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Ukraine constitute another group of foreign nationals. According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there were 296,685 refugees and asylum-seekers in Türkiye as of 2023. Moreover in 2023, according to PMM, there were 19,017 international protection applicants in the country, a gure released by PMM annually.
In addition, there are 1,129,958 foreign nationals present in Türkiye, holding residence permits. Compared to March 2023, this is a decrease of 204,192 individuals.

Migration from Iraq is multifaceted, characterized by different flows of emigration. In the post-2003 period, Iraqi nationals were mostly migrating to neighbouring countries, such as Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iran. In the following years, outgoing migration has turned towards Turkey and countries outside the region, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia, as well as European countries like Germany, Greece and Finland. Migration has been connected to waves of conflict-driven displacement resulting from the Iraq-Iran War (1980-1988), the Gulf War (1990-1991), the US occupation of Iraq and sectarian war (2003-2011), and the armed conflict against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (2013-2017). Beyond fuelling international movements, the latter conflict also resulted in around 6 million of internally displaced people. Throughout these periods, migration has been used as a strategy to overcome economic instability, political unrest, and the lack of security, equality, and social justice in Iraq; however, others have migrated abroad for economic, health or business reasons. 

Iraqi migrants are estimated to be more than 2 million, and return migration from abroad is an increasingly important dimension of the Iraqi migration landscape. After the end of the sectarian war and the conflict against the Islamic State, many Iraqis decided to return voluntarily. Moreover, among those who have emigrated as asylum seekers, not all of them have obtained a protection status (such as refugee status) that allows them to remain in the host country; frequently, such people are hence forced to return to Iraq. As of December 2022, approximately five million Iraqi nationals have returned from abroad. However, the exact number of Iraqi returnees is difficult to establish because not all of them have returned through programmes of assisted voluntary return and flows are thus difficult to track. Little is known about the conditions faced by returned migrants in Iraq. Due to the lack of statistical data and research, it is not possible to have a comprehensive picture of the challenges faced by nationals upon return, or their challenges of reintegrating in Iraq.

DTM Iraq collects data at border crossing points with neighboring countries – the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran), the Syrian Arab Republic (Syria) and Turkey – to better understand migration movements in the Middle East. Cross-border monitoring is drawn from IOM’s DTM standard methodology, designed to capture and describe migration flows, and is part of IOM’s DTM Regional Evidence for Migration Analysis and Policy (REMAP) project, funded by the European Union, which aims to capture and describe migration flows in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. Data displayed in this report was collected in June, July and August 2020, employing two approaches: 1) headcount of all travellers entering or leaving Iraq, and 2) survey of randomly sampled travellers.

Border crossing points were selected based on observations conducted in May 2019 by IOM’s Rapid Assessment and Response Teams (RARTs), when five border crossing points were selected for data collection: Ibrahim Al-Khalil, bordering Turkey, Fishkhabour, bordering Syria, and Bashmagh Zurbatiyah (Wassit Terminal) and Al-Shalamcha, bordering Iran. Due to mobility restrictions imposed by Iraqi authorities since March 2020 aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), data collection took place at three out of five selected border points in June, July and August 2020. Further details on the selection of respondents, survey methodology, and how the border crossing points were selected are available in the Methodological Overview in the last section of this report.

The report presents an overview of the overall movements of travellers observed at any of three selected border crossing points during June, July and August 2020. It is also focused in more detail on those travellers who are crossing the border for three or more months – they are referred to as migrants and comprise 49 per cent of all recorded travellers. Findings presented in this report relate to sociodemographic characteristics, reasons for travel and mobility history of this category of travellers.

DTM Iraq conducts data collection at the border crossing points with neighboring countries – the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey and the Syrian Arab Republic – to better understand migration movement in the Middle East. This data collection activity is part of the Regional Evidence for Migration Analysis and Policy (REMAP) project, targeting Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. The data for this report was gathered through counting exercises that took place at five border crossing points during the months of November and December 2019.

DTM Iraq collects data at border crossing points with neighboring countries – the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran), the Syrian Arab Republic (Syria) and Turkey – to better understand migration movements in the Middle East. Cross-border monitoring is drawn from IOM’s DTM standard methodology designed to capture and describe migration flows, and is part of IOM’s DTM Regional Evidence for Migration Analysis and Policy (REMAP) project, funded by the European Union, which aims to capture and describe migration flows in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. Data displayed in this report was collected at five border point crossings in January and February 2020, employing two different approaches: 1) headcount of all travellers entering or leaving Iraq, and 2) survey of randomly sampled travellers. Border crossing points were selected based on observations conducted in May 2019 by IOM’s Rapid Assessment and Response Teams (RARTs). Out of 16 locations observed, five border crossing points were selected for data collection: Ibrahim Al-Khalil, bordering Turkey, Fishkhabour, bordering Syria, and Bashmagh, Zurbatiyah (Wassit Terminal) and Al-Shalamcha, bordering Iran. Further details on the selection of respondents, survey methodology, and how the border crossing points were selected are available in the Methodological Overview in the last section of this report.

The report presents an overview of the overall movements of travellers observed at any of five selected border crossing points during January and February 2020. It is also focused in more detail on those travellers who are crossing the border for three or more months – they are referred to as migrants and comprise 12 per cent of all recorded travellers. Findings presented in this report relate to socio-demographic characteristics, reasons for travel and mobility history of this category of travellers.

DTM Iraq collects data at border crossing points with neighbouring countries – the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran), the Syrian Arab Republic (Syria) and Turkey – to better understand migration movements in the Middle East. Cross-border monitoring is designed to capture and describe migration flows, and is part of IOM DTM’s Regional Evidence for Migration Analysis and Policy (REMAP) project, funded by the European Union. The project aims to capture and describe migration flows in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. The United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) funded this piece of research. 

This report seeks to identify migrants in vulnerable situations entering and departing Iraq who may be susceptible to trafficking in persons and/or other forms of abuse, violence and exploitation along their migratory journey. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the profile of the vulnerable groups, the means of organizing travel, push-factors in the decision-making process, level of risk-awareness and problems encountered during the journey.

Data displayed in this report were collected using two approaches: a headcount of all travellers entering or departing Iraq though the specified border points where DTM have data collection teams stationed and a survey of randomly selected travellers. Data collection took place between 1 September 2020 and 30 September 2021 at five border crossing points: Ibrahim Al-Khalil, bordering Turkey, Fishkhabour, bordering Syria, and Bashmagh, Zurbatiyah (Wassit Terminal) and Al-Shalamcha, bordering Iran. During this period, a total of 14,598 interviews were conducted with randomly selected travellers entering and departing Iraq. 

During the recent migration crisis in Belarus, thousands of Iraqis experienced harassment, exposure and violence. Many returned, via IOM 
facilitated movements through the Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) programme and via movements organised and supported by the Government of Iraq from Belarus and neighbouring countries of the European Union (EU). Potential emigrants from Iraq began to travel to Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland in large numbers in the second half of 2021. In the context of negotiations between the Government of Belarus and the EU, the Government of Belarus’ relaxation of visa policies and a travel information campaign in Iraq, there was a significant increase in the number of potential emigrants from Iraq travelling to Belarus. Many of those potential emigrants travelled with the intention of onward travel to enter the European Union or the United Kingdom.

With the suspension of flights from Baghdad to Belarus in August 2021, potential emigrants from Iraq began to use alternative routes to reach 
Belarus and neighbouring EU countries, including from airports in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. The increase of Iraqi emigrants entering Belarus resulted in a crisis when Belarusian security forces began to move migrants to the country’s borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. This was accompanied by reports of violence and abuse against Iraqi migrants at the border, many of whom were reportedly unable to move into Europe or back into Belarus. As a result, the Government of Iraq (GoI), facilitated the return of approximately 3,800 Iraqi migrants. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), with the support of the European Union, have continued to facilitate the voluntary return of Iraqi migrants from Belarus and EU countries.