Mixed Migration Flows
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MIXED MIGRATION FLOWS: SOMALI AND ETHIOPIAN MIGRATION TO YEMEN AND TURKEY FINAL REPORT MAY 2010 Prepared for the Mixed Migration Task Force Ray Jureidini Center for Migration and Refugee Studies American University in Cairo 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank all those who shared their life stories during the interviews as well as the interviewers and translators in Yemen and Turkey who made this possible. Our appreciation goes to United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) staff in Yemen including Claire Bourgeois, Samer Haddadin, Leila Nassif, Myra Sabongi, Miriam Aertker and in Turkey to Michelle Gaude and in Syria to Petros Mastakas and to the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) staff including Santiago Perez Crespo, Nicolas Coutin and Yusra Dawood and Olivier Beucher for facilitating the logistics, training and interviews for the study; and to Oxford University for advisory support. Particular thanks to Nancy Baron of CMRS as senior researcher in Yemen, for her work on the first drafts of this report and her support and advice throughout the project. Special thanks also to Kristen Biehl, Senior Researcher and Alice Johnson, Research Coordinator who implemented the study in Turkey. Thanks to Khadra Elmi at Oxford University for work on the literature review of Somalis in Europe; Catherine McKay (and Iveta Bartunkova) at the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at AUC for the work on the Somali and Ethiopian literature review in the region; and Kristen Biehl for the review on migration and asylum in Turkey. We are grateful to Anna Lindley, Oliver Bakewell and Gwendoline Mensah for their comments on a previous draft. We are also most grateful for the ongoing support and guidance from the beginning of the project provided by Catherine-Lune Grayson from the DRC. 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report cannot do justice to the information about the people and the journeys they made and endured which is the subject of this study. It is a complex, multitude of stories of many countries, many tragedies and many successes. The first part of the report provides an overview of previous studies locating the various trajectories of Somalis and Ethiopians out of their respective countries to neighbouring countries and across the globe. The second part reports on the survey of Somalis and Ethiopians in Yemen and Turkey. Somalis are considered to be one of the most significant refugee populations in the world with more than one million of its 7.4 million people now living outside Somalia, and numbers growing daily. With economic, environmental, conflict and minority group issues, the numbers of Ethiopians joining the Somalis in their movement across Somalia, Yemen, the Middle East and the Gulf and into Europe has also been reportedly growing. In July 2009, the Mixed Migration Task Force (MMTF) based in Somalia and Yemen commissioned the Centre for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) of the American University of Cairo (AUC) to produce a study in Yemen, KSA and Turkey that would “contribute to developing a forward looking strategy to strengthen the protection of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants from Somalia or transiting through Somalia.” Data for the study was collected through a structured questionnaire given to 955 Somali and Ethiopian males (479) and females (476) aged 15–66 years including new arrivals and people residing in these locations more than one month and less than one year as well as a small group with longer term residency in Yemen and Turkey and from a small number of qualitative discussions in Syria. A literature review and key informant interviews also contribute to the study‟s data. This Executive Summary provides an overview of some of the key findings for which full details can be found within the body of the report. The study provides information about the mixed migration flows through Yemen and Turkey with lesser information about Syria and includes information about the migrating populations including: a. Region of origin and reason for leaving b. Profile of people: age, gender, vulnerabilities c. Points of departure, modes of transportation, funding for the transportation, transit routes d. Specific protection challenges faced during the journey e. Reception conditions, current living conditions and duration of the stay in Yemen and Turkey 3 f. Perceived adequacy of the ongoing assistance and coping strategies of the population migrating or settling in Yemen and Turkey through the UN, NGOs, government, religious organziations, communities, families, friends and personal capacities g. Countries of intended final destination The history of the mixed migration flows of Somalis and Ethiopians, particularly since the 1990‟s have been well documented and indicate many vexed and difficult experiences, and death, along the routes they have taken – across Africa to the north and south, the Arabian Gulf, the Mashreq countries, Turkey, Europe and North America. They have traversed by air, land and sea to reach destinations for which they have hopes of safety, improved livelihoods and greater prosperity than the often tortuous conditions of insecurity due to conflict, drought, unemployment and other calamities in their home regions. Their aspirations, however, are not always met. In Yemen and Turkey, they face harsh circumstances (but different environmental conditions) with discrimination and harassment in the streets, even though they may have protection and assistance from UN aid agencies, NGOs and others. Push factors include mainly insecurity from conflict, but also the simple expectation to improve their daily lives, particularly to find employment as the main source of income and well-being. Many, however, perhaps particularly Somalis, rely heavily upon family resources that may come from a variety of transnational networks of Somali communities at home and abroad. The main findings of the study begin with an overview about the journey. Reasons for travel: Somalis have migrated from all 3 zones in Somalia. However, the large majority (88%) originated from three regions in the South Central Zone. Only 12 percent of Somalis reported that they were not from conflict regions. More than half of the Ethiopians in the study originated in the Oromia region (52%) that covers central and southern parts of the country. While having mixed motivations, “insecurity from conflict” was the overall most frequent single reason (87%) that Somali respondents gave for fleeing from their home country. This was followed by “lack of assistance to meet their basic needs” and “economic reasons”, mainly related to the need for employment. Most Ethiopians also cited “insecurity” (67%) as their single most frequent reason for leaving home, while a larger proportion said it was because of “lack of assistance to meet their basic needs” (19%) and “economic reasons” (13%). Based on the stated motivations and regions of origin, it may be assumed that the large majority of those in this study could be classified as refugees having faced not only violent conflict but also the hardship that comes with such disruptions to the economy, livelihood and the difficulties of maintaining an adequate existence. 4 Almost half of both populations said that they had been internally displaced before leaving home. Thus, a considerable proportion of those in this study had already experienced considerable disruption to their lives through internal displacement prior to embarking upon their journeys to Yemen and Turkey. Many of the IDP camps throughout the country, including in Galkayo in Puntland have been insecure with incidents of bombings and violence against those from the south; and with poor conditions resulting in diseases and infections related to malnutrition (IRIN, 2008; IRIN, 2009). However, the data in the study does not reveal the extent to which the displacement itself was a part of the overall journey, or whether the conditions and experience of displacement were the motivating factors that led to the decision to travel abroad. Funding the journey: The most common initial source of funding for the journey came from respondents‟ families (29%). The second main source was having worked and saved for the journey (21%), followed by the selling of material possessions (15%), remittances from family abroad (15%), selling their livestock (8%), selling their home and/or land (6%) and borrowing money (5%). Somalis were more likely to raise funds from family remittances, while Ethiopians were more likely to sell their animals and material possessions. Combining remittances and local family support we find that almost half of Somalis in the study (47%) had their travel funded by their families, compared with a lower proportion of Ethiopians (31%). With remittances and direct financial support, 43 percent of all respondents were funded by family. This is an important finding because it means that families, whether left behind, in the destination country or somewhere else abroad, have made a significant investment in the migration of selected individuals from their homeland to seek a better and more secure existence commonly with the expectation by them and the person migrating that it will also benefit others. On the other hand, those that had sold all their possessions (houses, property, livestock, etc.) may be seen to have seriously broken their asset ties to their country and locale of origin, making it more difficult to return, or at least reducing the incentive to return. Travel routes and means: The large majority of Somalis started their journey from the South Central region, mainly Mogadishu/Banadir. Consistent with the previous MMTF (2008) study, the overland route by bus, car or minivan takes the main highway from Mogadishu to Jowhar, Beledweyne and Galkayo to Garoowe. From Garoowe, the route branches off to the east to the Puntland coast and Bosasso, or to the west to the Somaliland coast to Lascanood, Burco, Hargeysa, and further up the coast to Djibouti including Obock. Many (121 in the sample) travelled to Mogadishu as their first stop from elsewhere in Banadir and the neighbouring regions of the south central zone – mainly Shabeelaha Hoose, Bay, Shabeelaha Dhexe and Bakool, respectively.