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IOM releases World Migration Report 2022

IOM report 2022

Since 2000, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been producing its world migration report every two years. These reports analyses relevant migration data in order to foster the understanding of migration, its main drivers and related phenomena, such as climate change, human trafficking and the impact of COVID-19. The World Migration Report 2022, which has been launched on the 1st of December, presents key data and information on migration as well as thematic chapters on highly topical migration issues such as human trafficking.

To contribute to an increased understanding of migration throughout the world, the World Migration Report 2022 comes with an interactive website and toolkits on migration, such as:

  • The educators toolkit includes resources especially designed for teachers and students about migration, migrants and human geography.
  • The fact-checkers toolkit includes resources to be used to combat misinformation about migration and migrants.
  • The digital toolkit for Policy Officials is still forthcoming and will support policy officers in leveraging migration research for evidence-based policymaking.

The 2022 report shows that regardless of the disruption of the global mobility due to COVID-19, internal displacement increased significantly because of natural disasters, conflict and violence: while the number of international passengers dropped by 60% in 2020, internal displacement rose by nearly 30%.

Other main findings of the this edition include:

  • The amount of international migrants has grown steadily since 1970, currently representing 3.6% of the whole population on the planet. This means that 1 in 30 persons is an international migrant.
  • Remittances have also grown overall and have experienced a slight decrease of 2.6% due to COVID-19 compared to 2019.
  • 61% of all global migrants live either in Europe or Asia, which respectively host 87 million and 86 million migrants.
  • The great majority of migrants do not migrate across borders but within countries (an estimated 740 million internal migrants in 2009).

Chapter 10 addresses the topic of human trafficking. The chapter defines human trafficking and provides an overview of current trafficking trends and patterns, with an analysis of the available data on migrant victims of human trafficking and traffickers. Furthermore, the chapter explores the current challenges and promising avenues for the prevention of trafficking in migrants, including prosecuting traffickers, protecting victims and cooperating in counter-trafficking efforts.

In the conclusion of this chapter on human trafficking, the report acknowledges that on one hand there is a widespread consensus about the urgent need to prevent and combat trafficking, while on the other hand there is less of an agreement on how to do this in practice as well as a lack of political will to introduce effective measures.

The IOM formulates three policy suggestions on the topic of human trafficking:

  1. Strengthen the understanding of human trafficking, especially when compared to other related phenomena such as smuggling or irregular migration.
  2. Adopt tailor-made protective measures for migrant victims of human trafficking: migrants victims may have specific protection needs, that could depend on their migration status and on their status as a victim of a serious crime. Measures should take into account the gender, age, vulnerabilities and stigmatization of the victim.
  3. Transforming cooperation into effective and impactful collaboration: cross-border, multi-stakeholder, cross-sectoral, whole-of-government and whole-of-society collaboration is key to combat human trafficking.

To access full report, click here.

See also the recording of the launch of the report.