IDENTIFYING NEW RESEARCH PRIORITIES IN EAST AFRICA
Workshop, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) 20 September 2018 organised by SIHMA, OSSREA (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), and the University of Western Cape (South Africa)
Eastern Africa is associated with a complexity of movements involving different groups of people within and outside the region. Conflicts and violence have generated a large number of refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people (IDPs). According to the UNHCR, at the end of 2017, countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania hosted more than 3 million refugees and over 5 million IDPs. Domestic and regional labour mobility, as well as movements of workers outside the continent, is also an important aspect of migration within the Eastern African region. Over the past years, movements of skilled and unskilled migrants to the Gulf States have increased due to geographical proximity and the presence of labour agreements. These mixed migration flows are driven by multiple socio-economic, political and environmental factors and in many case involve a high number of irregular migrants who are trafficked to countries in the Middle East, Europe and Southern Africa. Victims of trafficking are particularly vulnerable to human rights violations and physical abuses and are of great concern to governments in the East Africa region. All the aforementioned aspects make it imperative to gain insight into the fundamental nature of the migration challenges in the Eastern Africa region. It is therefore necessary to review current knowledge about migration in East Africa, identify priority areas for future research and work toward the establishment of a research network to support policymaking. The workshop was divided into substantive sessions providing participants the opportunity to focus on specific areas from their own perspective and national experiences.
SOme of the main conclusions of the Symposium were reflected and incorporated into a issue of the African Human Moblity Review (AHMR).
