Date: Thursday, 20 December 2018
This dashboard analyses and represent information based on IOM data and reports by UNCTAD 2018, UNODC 2018 and ISS 2017, regarding the cost of the journey facilitated by smuggling networks from the Horn of Africa. Costs were available for movements related to 6 countries - Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia -, and for 2 Routes: Northern and Eastern Route.
Affording the Journey
The Hawala Banking (money transfer through brokers) is the main form of payment used by smugglers in Ethiopia and Somalia. Migrants reaching Djibouti or Yemen via Ethiopia, for instance, often have their entire journey covered using the same banking system and in agreement with smugglers' networks. Contrarily, in Yemen payments are generally in cash and separately for each leg of the journey.
To cover the next leg of their journey and due to cash shortage, migrants might be compelled to engage in informal (illicit) and underpaid jobs in farms or urban centres. Others may get involved in criminal activities or experience severe hardships such as sexual exploitation, recruitment by armed groups, or accept payment schemes upon arrival at their intended destination.
Besides the monetary cost incurred when soliciting smugglers services, migrants may endure considerable risks and dangers during their journey and at their destination, such as vehicle accidents and injuries; kidnapping for ransom; abduction by criminal groups; starvation, dehydration and suffocation; detention; and physical and sexual exploitation and abuse.
