Risks, Protection and Assistance

MMC research shows that overall people on the move often have a relatively high level of awareness of the risks they may face before starting their journey. This suggests that information campaigns designed primarily to deter migration by highlighting risks may have limited impact on people’s decisions to move.

For example, an MMC study on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Ethiopian migrants found that around 80% of respondents were already aware of risks such as extortion, robbery, physical violence, kidnapping, sexual abuse, and severe deprivation.

What is often overlooked in discussions on risk awareness is the risk(s) people face of staying. Many people make calculated decisions, weighing the dangers of migration against ongoing insecurity, violence, or lack of opportunities at home. This is reflected in 4Mi migration data: among more than 90,000 migrants and refugees that responded to the survey globally, 62% reported that they would still have undertaken their journey, even knowing the risks they eventually faced.

Whilst risks and dangers are endemic on all mixed migration routes, some of the most dangerous ones include the Central Mediterranean route, the Sahara Desert crossing, routes through North Africa, the Darian Gap between Colombia and Panama, the Horn of Africa to Yemen and Saudi Arabia route, the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands and the US- Mexico border crossing. Lethal risks include drowning, exposure to extreme heat, kidnapping, torture, and other forms of extreme violence. Importantly, incidents and deaths continue to be underreported due to a lack of access and data along some routes.

Both state and non-state actors carry out systemic abuse on people on the move. State actors include government authorities, armed and police forces, border guards and coast guards, whilst non-state actors comprise criminal gangs, smugglers, traffickers, employers and other migrants.

Collecting reliable evidence on mixed and irregular migration routes is difficult due to the inherently dangerous, often remote, nature of the route and highly mobile population. Nonetheless, this work is fundamental in revealing and addressing the risks that refugees and migrants face. It is carried out both by international organisations, NGOs, community based organisations and civil society networks. They do this through a combination of field work in key hotspots, satellite tracking, maritime rescue data and hotline distress calls. Investigative journalists and academics also regularly support this monitoring work, by interviewing survivors at shelters and arrival/detention points, often uncovering hidden abuses.

Research from MMC and others has highlighted that migration risks can have a gender component. Women often report experiencing more sexual violence and harassment than men, whilst men seem to be more exposed to dangers such as physical violence and detention. Both men and women report very similar rates of robbery, bribery/extortion, harassment and illness. Visit our page on Gender, Children and Youth in migration.