The purpose of this study, “Assessing the Risks of Migration along the Central and Eastern Mediterranean Routes: Iraq and Nigeria as Case Study Countries” is to give breadth to the concept of “safe migration” by analysing patterns of migration and return from two case study countries: Iraq and Nigeria. IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre completed this research study for the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development as part of a wider project entitled “Mediterranean Migration Response, Reducing the Risks of Unsafe Migration: Linking Research, Data and Policy”.

The report is based on 147 in-depth qualitative interviews with migrants and key informants in Nigeria, Niger and Italy (for the Central Mediterranean route) and Iraq, Greece and Germany (for the Eastern Mediterranean route). It presents an update on the dynamics of migration through these two Mediterranean routes, looking specifically at routes and the risks that present on exit, during the journey, at destination and on return. It also provides a first insight into the experience of Iraqi asylum seekers in Germany, after the large number of arrivals in 2015.