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Kenya has become a favourite destination for Somalis and Ugandans looking for greener pastures abroad, with latest statistics showing that an estimated 700,000 migrants from the two countries entered the country in 2020.

Somalia with a total of 425,284 had the highest number of African migrants coming to Kenya followed by Uganda with an estimated 290,597 persons in the year in question. An almost equal number of Somalis entering Kenya were destined for Ethiopia.

Ironically, over one million South Sudanese migrants preferred the Ugandan route rather than through Kenya during the same year, making the South Sudan-Uganda path the second largest migration corridor in Africa.

The most preferred corridor in the continent is between Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire which was used by approximately 1.3 million migrants in 2020.

East and West Africa are the most preferred destinations for international migrants in the continent with an estimated 7.5 million residing in each of the regions.

“The largest corridors of intra-African migration are predominantly between countries that share a land border, highlighting how migration on the continent is characterised by short-distance mobility and is, therefore, more local than global,” the latest Africa Migration Report says adding that in Africa one in 50 people are currently living outside the country in which they were born.

It goes on: “Migrants originating in West and Central Africa as well as in large parts of Southern and East Africa were mainly living in neighbouring or proximate African countries.

Moreover, the bi-directionality of several intra-African corridors reflects the high prevalence of temporary or circular labour migration, such as between Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire, and refugee movements, such as between South Sudan and the Sudan.”

But data shows that as of 2022 no single Kenyan was being hosted as a refugee or asylum seeker in any African country despite there being over 500,000 of them locally.

Asylum seeker

Similarly, during the same year, no Ugandan was being hosted as a refugee or asylum seeker in Africa despite the Kenyan neighbour hosting about 1.5 million migrants of that status, three times more than Kenya and the highest in the continent.

Conflict-torn South Sudan, which is categorised as the world’s largest migration crisis, has the highest number of refugees and asylum seekers abroad and in-country, estimated to be over two million and 200,000 respectively.

To further explain why Africa should work towards harmonising its migration policies, half of the African migrants were destined for African countries in mid-2020 accounting for 52 per cent of people on the move from the continent.

During the same period, 27 per cent of migrants from Africa landed in Europe while a mere eight per cent sought ‘greener pastures’ in North American countries.

Asia attracted 12 per cent of African migrants, and only a staggering one per cent went to Oceania (Australia and New Zealand).

Despite the purported ‘ethnic’ ties with some Caribbean countries, Africans shunned Latin America and the Caribbean countries as data recorded no migrants from Africa in that region by mid-2020.

Migration corridors

As of 2020, the most populous migration corridors from Africa to the rest of the world were between Algeria – France and Morocco – France, both carrying over 2.6 million migrants while another 400,000 entered the European nation from Tunisia.

More than two million migrants from the continent were headed to the Middle East countries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates from Egypt in the same year.

About 402,186 migrants went to the United States from Nigeria and another 280,940 headed to Yemen from Somalia.

The report documents the Occupied Palestinian Territory – Libya corridor that ferried an estimated 305 476 people as the largest immigration route for non-Africans.

African emigration to other continents, the report states, is determined by a combination of economic drivers and historical and cultural proximity.

“Pre-existing social ties, whether resulting from a common language – such as Egypt with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – or a shared political history – such as Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia with France – favour and facilitate migratory movements.

:Yet Africa currently receives little immigration from other continents, with the only large corridor being from the Occupied Palestinian Territory to Libya,” the document compiled by the International Organisation for Migration adds.