DIIS Report

New report on West African migrants' use of information along the routes to Europe

Does more information save imigrants lives

Information campaigns aimed at discouraging young Africans from migrating have become an increasingly popular policy measure. European governments and the EU have funded campaigns to inform about the risk and dangers of irregular migration and stop unwanted migration. Similarly, humanitarian organisations fund such campaigns with the intention of decreasing migrants’ vulnerability and saving lives. But what kinds of information do migrants themselves rely on and does information save migrants’ lives and reduce vulnerabilities en route?

This new DIIS Report shows how West African men and women utilise and select available information when planning their journeys to North Africa and Europe – before departure and as they move along the ever-shifting routes. Building on interviews with West African migrants the report shows how, rather than relying on information about migration from online websites, governments and organisations, migrants mainly trust people in their social networks of family, relatives and other migrants.

The report documents the vulnerabilities and abuses that migrants, especially under the Covid-19 pandemic, face as well as identifying the range of perpetrators who cause these. In migration policy debates, migrant smugglers are often portrayed as those most responsible for putting migrants’ lives at risk. Yet, in this report we question the problematic one-sided focus on the smugglers, highlighting how also local authorities, police and the military are key perpetrators and pose a real risk for migrants on the move.

Furthermore, the intensified efforts to stop irregular migration in the EU-African borderlands make migrants fear seeking humanitarian assistance en route, because some humanitarian actors are associated by migrants with migration enforcement, detention and deportation: leaving policymakers as well as humanitarian actors with an important dilemma to tackle.

The report has been commissioned by the Danish Red Cross.

DIIS Experts

Ida Vammen
Migration and global order
Senior Researcher
+45 32698707
Sine Plambech
Migration and global order
Senior Researcher
+45 6065 0479
Ahlam Chemlali
Migration and global order
PhD Candidate
+45 2887 9179
Ninna Nyberg Sørensen
Migration and global order
Senior Researcher
+45 3269 8961
Cover Does information save migrants lives DIIS Report 2021 01
Does information save migrants' lives?
Knowledge and needs of West African migrants en route to Europe