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Background
• Refugees and migrants engaging in mixed movements along the Western Indian Ocean Route undertake complex journeys towards Mayotte, an overseas French department in the Indian Ocean region. The Western Indian Ocean Route is comprised of several (sub)routes or branches, originating in East Africa and the Great Lakes, the Comoros, and Madagascar.
• In 2024, a total of 2,463 first-time asylum seekers were registered in Mayotte, of whom 52% originated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), followed by Comoros (25%), Somalia (15%), Madagascar (3%), and Burundi (2%).
• Recent research has demonstrated that smuggling networks along the route appear well-established, and that smugglers may take on the role of recruiter, with reports of Congolese and Burundians being influenced to move onward along the Western Indian Ocean Route by smugglers in Tanzania