Youth Mixed Migration in Gateway Cities in West Africa

With the adoption of the Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular Migration (GCM) in 2018, there has been growing international cooperation to make migration work for all. Likewise, attention to migration and refugees has increased, as has the number of persons affected, leading to widespread concern over the challenge of securing data on persons affected, their needs and the drivers of migration. There is a specific need for data in urban transit hubs, where mixed migration is the norm, as traditional sources of descriptive information do not capture the demographic profile of migrants, their needs and motivations.

There is also a very specific need to gather more data on youth migrants, both male and female, as they represent a disproportionately large share of migration flows into transit cities. Many are unaccompanied and without adequate fiscal or social resources, and their needs define key areas of potential intervention to maximize their prospects for improving their capabilities and contributing meaningfully to their communities of origin, transit and/or destination.

In line with objective 1 of the Global Compact on Migration, and in an effort to inform interventions aimed at reducing vulnerabilities among young migrants, UNFPA in partnership with the Mixed Migration Centre of the Danish Refugee Council, and with the support of the Government of Denmark, conducted a study on policy and service needs of young international migrants in 7 major transit cities in two phases between 2017 and 2021. The study paid particular attention to the young migrants’ access to essential services including Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH), identification documentation, and protection, including from Gender Based Violence. Phase 1 of the study was conducted in four cities (Cairo, Lebanon, Nairobi, Tunis) in 2017/18 while phase 2 was conducted in three cities in West Africa (Bamako, Niamey and Ouagadougou) in 2019-2021.