Ángel Medina/EFE
remittances sent by migrants to their countries of origin will fall by
20 per cent (developing countries received more than $550 billion
in international remittances in 2019).
This dramatic decline will affect their economies significantly,
as this is a major source of funding, which has helped hundreds
of millions of people to overcome poverty in the past decade.
Furthermore, this money sent by migrants has served to empower
women, since they have taken on a greater role in financial decision-making,
which has eventually led to improving
the health and education conditions in their
communities. To make matters even worse,
the relative importance of remittance flows as
a source of external finance is expected to
increase for the duration of the crisis.
The movement restriction policy that
has spread across the globe, including the
closure of borders, is also unprecedented.
Some estimates claim that these movement
restrictions have affected 90 per cent of the
world’s population. Migrants from all walks
of life, whether they are refugees fleeing
situations of violence or economic migrants looking for jobs, are
not exempt from these restrictions on movement. In fact, in mid-
March the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the
International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced that they
were temporarily suspending the resettlement of refugees and
migrants as a result of COVID-19.
African irregular migration routes converging in Europe through
the Mediterranean have also been strongly affected by mobility
restrictions. A study conducted by the
IOM has concluded that from May 2019
to May 2020 there has been a 39 per
cent decrease in movements on some
of these routes, such as those through
Chad, Mali, Niger and Nigeria.
Another relevant fact obtained from
this analysis is the estimate that, in this
area alone, about 50,000 migrants are
trapped without being able to move
forward to cross the borders to their
final destinations or in quarantine after
having crossed those borders. In the
50,000
migrants are
trapped between
borders due
to movement
restrictions
August 2020 Revista Española de Defensa 31