In its annual report, entitled "Migration and Migrants: A global view", the IOM states that the majority of international migration in Africa occurs within the continent.
The latest available data on the number of international migrants, for 2020, shows that around 21 million Africans lived in another African country, representing a significant increase compared to 2015, when it was estimated that around 18 million Africans lived abroad from their country of origin, but within the region.
"The number of Africans living in different regions also increased during the same period, from around 17 million in 2015 to more than 19.5 million in 2020", the report reads.
In 2020, the majority of African-born migrants living outside the region resided in Europe (11 million), Asia (almost five million) and North America (around three million).
Between 2015 and 2020, the number of migrants born outside the region remained practically unchanged (around two million), the majority of which came from Asia and Europe.
The majority of refugees on the continent were welcomed in neighboring countries in the region, with South Sudan being the country of origin for the largest number of refugees in Africa (around 2.3 million) and ranking fourth worldwide after the Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine and Afghanistan.
This is followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRCongo) and Sudan, responsible for 900,000 and 800,000 migrants, respectively.
Other countries of origin for a significant number of refugees were Somalia (around 800,000) and the Central African Republic (more than 748,000).
Among host countries, Uganda continued to host the largest number of refugees in Africa, in 2022: 1.5 million.
The majority of refugees in Uganda were from South Sudan and DR Congo. In addition to producing significant numbers of refugees, countries such as Sudan and DRCongo also hosted large refugee populations at the end of 2022 (almost 1.1 million and more than half a million, respectively).
Ethiopia, with around 900,000 refugees, was the third largest refugee-hosting country in Africa in 2022, the report indicates.
In relation to the Portuguese-speaking states, the IOM presents the percentage of immigrants in these countries, with Angola accounting for 2 percent of the population, Brazil 0.5 percent, Cape Verde 2.8 percent, Guinea-Bissau 0.9 percent, Equatorial Guinea 16.4 percent, Mozambique 1.1 percent, São Tomé and Príncipe 1 percent and Timor-Leste 0.6 percent.
