Perceptions of refugees, IDPs, and asylum seekers on the move
Photo: Getty Images
As part of the Mixed Migration Platform (MMP), we surveyed over 4,000 refugees, internally displaced persons, and asylum seekers in Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, and Austria in the course of 2017.
The Mixed Migration Platform was launched to deliver research, analysis, and policy recommendations for a better understanding of mixed migration patterns in the Middle East and Europe. It is a consortium of seven NGOs – ACAPS, Danish Refugee Council, Internews, INTERSOS, REACH, Translators without Borders, and Ground Truth Solutions. It was funded by the UK’s Department for International Development and Switzerland’s Federal Department for Foreign Affairs.
Our goal was to provide quality information and protection-sensitive analysis to improve decision-making, both for people on the move as well as for host governments and humanitarian organisations involved in the response.
Ground Truth Solutions’ contribution to the platform involved the collection and analysis of feedback from people in different stages of displacement – in the borderlands, transit countries, and countries of final destination.
We found that, after fleeing conflict at home, people tend to feel relatively safe in countries along the migration routes, especially when they feel welcomed by the host population. However, economic opportunities and the resulting sense of empowerment are scarce, and people lack trustworthy information to make informed decisions about their next steps or access vital services.
Our data suggests that the closer people are to the refugee-generating countries, the lower their satisfaction with available services. In Iraq and Lebanon, most people say the humanitarian programmes are inadequate in meeting their most important needs. However, perceptions of priority needs being met gradually improve further along the migration route.
