In Africa, there are an estimated 16.3 million migrants and close to 13.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in 19 countries (UN, 2002; Norwegian Refugee Council, 2002). There are estimated to be some 3.25 million African refugees and asylum seekers. The International Labour Organization estimates that the number of labor migrants in Africa today constitutes one-fifth of the global total and that by 2025, one in ten Africans will live and work outside their countries of origin (ILO, 2002). Many protracted conflicts have ended in recent years as new ones such as the Darfur conflict and northern Congo have also got worse in terms of humanitarian crisis. Currently, in Sudan alone, there are more than seven million IDPs, more than in any other country in the world. Sudan is also the country with the largest amount of people newly displaced in the recent years. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) there are 3.6 million IDPs and refugees whereas in Uganda there are more than two million IDPs. Sudan, DRC, Angola, Burundi, and Somalia were the largest sources of uprooted people in Africa, as five years ago, they accounted for more than 75 percent of all uprooted Africans. Tanzania, Sudan, Chad, Congo-Kinshasa, Zambia, and Uganda were the leading refugee and asylum hosts.
Migration – the view from Africa
Bonn International Center for Conversion
brief 36
The Security-Migration Nexus
Challenges and Opportunities of African Migration to EU Countries
Documentation of the International Conference Bonn, 22–23 February 2008
Jerry Sommer and Andrea Warnecke (eds.), 74-79