Kampala, Uganda | URN | Uganda is emerging as an increasingly important destination and transit country for migrants in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) region, with more than 1.2 million people arriving in the country and 1.3 million departing in 2022, according to a regional migration report.
The IGAD Population and Migration Statistics Report, Second Edition, published in July 2025, says non-residents have consistently accounted for the majority of people crossing Uganda’s borders, pointing to the country’s growing importance in regional migration flows.
The report, however, raises concern that the growing movement of people is occurring against a backdrop of limited and fragmented migration data across the region, making it difficult for governments to accurately track migration patterns and respond to associated risks.
It notes that only Uganda, Ethiopia and South Sudan provided partial time-series data on irregular migration and associated protection risks, while only Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan provided data on cross-border movements.
IGAD says the limitations in data availability are particularly concerning because the region serves simultaneously as a source, transit route, and destination for migrants.
“While data availability remains limited, with only Uganda, Ethiopia, and South Sudan providing partial time series data, the findings revealed some trends, particularly the vulnerability of youth and women to irregular migration,” says the report, which was made public this week.
According to the report, irregular migration continues to disproportionately affect youth and increasingly women, as seen in South Sudan, where men have consistently accounted for over 75 percent of irregular migrants.
“But the share of women rose from 8 percent in 2018 to 25 percent in 202,” it adds. It reveals that Uganda recorded an increase in human trafficking cases, rising from 421 in 2021 to 1,200 in 2022, with children comprising nearly half of the victims.
These trends, according to the authors, point to deep-rooted socio-economic drivers and the pressing need for targeted protection and prevention strategies.The report states that the IGAD region is experiencing increasingly complex migration patterns driven by political instability, economic disparities, climate-related shocks, and environmental degradation.
“While data availability remains limited,” the report says, “the findings revealed some trends, particularly the vulnerability of youth and women to irregular migration.”
Uganda’s border movement figures illustrate the scale of mobility. Data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs cited in the report show that Uganda registered 1,211,861 arrivals and 1,300,001 departures in 2022.
Of the arrivals, 814,508 were non-residents compared to 397,353 residents. Among departures, 790,746 were non-residents while 509,255 were residents.
The report says the dominance of non-resident crossings was not a one-off occurrence in 2022.
“Throughout the period under review, non-resident border crossings consistently outnumbered those by residents,” the report states, adding that this indicates Uganda’s “continued role as a significant destination and transit country within the region.”
The pattern was evident before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2016, Uganda recorded more than 1.8 million arrivals, including about 1.3 million non-residents, while departures stood at nearly 1.9 million, with more than 1.3 million involving non-residents.
The figures dropped sharply in 2020 as governments imposed restrictions to contain the coronavirus pandemic, before movement began recovering.
In 2021, Uganda recorded about 722,000 arrivals and 866,000 departures. By 2022, arrivals had increased to about 1.2 million while departures reached 1.3 million.
The report says the decline during 2019 and 2020 was largely driven by COVID-19 travel restrictions, which curtailed cross-border movement. But the expansion of mobility is accompanied by serious protection concerns.
The report records a sharp increase in human trafficking cases in Uganda, rising from 421 in 2021 to 1,200 in 2022. Children accounted for 532 of the 1,200 cases, or about 44 percent, while adults accounted for 668 cases.
IGAD describes the increase as alarming and links it to low employment levels, poverty, and other socio-economic pressures that expose people to trafficking.
“Alarmingly, children were involved in nearly half of these trafficking cases,” the report states, underscoring what it describes as the severe impact on vulnerable populations and the need for targeted interventions. The figures show that reported trafficking cases more than quadrupled from 286 in 2018 to 1,200 in 2022, although the trend was not consistent.
Cases fell from 286 in 2018 to 252 in 2019 and 214 in 2020, before rising to 421 in 2021 and 1,200 in 2022. IGAD attributes the sharp fall in 2020 partly to movement restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the report, labour exploitation emerged as the predominant form of trafficking in 2020 and 2021, suggesting that trafficking patterns are influenced by changing socio-economic conditions.
The report warns that these changing patterns require governments to adapt their prevention and protection measures rather than relying on static approaches.
“The data underscores the need for adaptive strategies and targeted interventions to effectively combat different forms of exploitation as they arise,” it says.
The Uganda findings form part of a wider regional picture in which migration is expanding while governments continue to grapple with the systems needed to monitor it.
The report estimates that the number of international migrants in the IGAD region increased from 4.1 million in 2013 to 6.8 million in 2022, representing a 65.9 percent increase over the decade. Working-age international migrants increased from 2.7 million to 4.3 million over the same period, while the region had 2.5 million migrant workers in 2022.
IGAD says the increase in migration requires stronger governance because migration is increasingly intertwined with employment, displacement, development and protection.
“Furthermore, these trends signify increased migratory movements within the IGAD region, thus necessitating better migration governance for socio-economic development and management of migration issues,” the report states.
The region is also dealing with large-scale forced displacement. By the end of 2022, IGAD hosted 4.3 million refugees, equivalent to about one in every six refugees globally.
The report says women and children constituted a large share of the refugee and asylum-seeking populations, adding another layer of vulnerability to an already complex migration environment.
For Uganda, the report says migration management is supported by a National Coordination Mechanism and a Technical Working Group involving government ministries, agencies and other stakeholders.
Their areas of cooperation include irregular migration, labour migration, trafficking in persons, migrant smuggling, forced displacement, migration and development, and migration health.
Uganda also relies on administrative records compiled by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics and information generated through national surveys and censuses.
The report cites the Uganda National Household Survey, Uganda Demographic and Health Survey and National Labour Force Surveys, while noting that migration-related modules were also incorporated into the 2024 National Population and Housing Census. Despite these efforts, IGAD says migration data across the region remain inadequate.
The report recommends stronger use of administrative data, timely reporting, harmonisation of definitions and methodologies, better coordination among institutions and improved disaggregation of migration statistics by age and sex.
It also calls for stronger systems to capture information on internally displaced people and other vulnerable migrant populations.
IGAD says accurate migration statistics are becoming increasingly important as countries implement policies aimed at facilitating safe, orderly and regular movement of people.
The report’s central warning is that migration itself is not necessarily a problem, but poor management of migration can deepen vulnerability and exploitation.
It states that well-governed migration can contribute to sustainable development, social stability and regional integration, while inadequate migration governance can increase “vulnerability, marginalisation, and exploitation, particularly for low-wage and forcibly displaced populations.”
For Uganda, the border figures therefore point to more than a high volume of travellers.
They show a country positioned at the centre of regional population movements, receiving and transmitting large numbers of non-resident travellers, while simultaneously confronting trafficking and other protection risks.
The challenge, the report suggests, is ensuring that Uganda’s systems can keep pace with the people moving through its borders, and that the growing volume of migration does not leave vulnerable people invisible to the institutions meant to protect them.
The IGAD report covers data up to 2022, meaning the figures do not represent Uganda’s current migration volumes in 2026.
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