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A total of 435 migrants were registered at MRCs across the region in October. The largest number of migrants was registered in Bosasso (134), followed by Hargeisa (130), Obock (92), Metema (59) and Semera (20). Almost a quarter of all registrations were children. The largest number of children were registered in Hargeisa (58) and Obock (24). While all 58 minors in Hargeisa were accompanied, 75% of minors in Obock were unaccompanied (18). Moreover, all registered minors in Semera (4) and Metema (10) and half of the registered minors in Bosasso (4) were unaccompanied. This is likely attributable to the fact that more than half of all minors registered in Hargeisa were younger than 6, whilst the other MRCs mainly registered 15-17 year olds. This also reflects the nature of the respective MRCs, with Hargeisa receiving larger numbers of young children compared to other MRCs due to its location in an area where many migrant families (particularly women and their children) have temporarily settled.
The vast majority (99.5%) of MRC registrations in October were of Ethiopian nationality, most commonly from the Oromia (44%), Amhara (18%), Somali (15%) and Tigray regions (14%), as has been the case in previous months.
Although only 4% of registrees reported that their main motivation for leaving their place of habitual residence was conflict, ongoing hostilities in the southern part of the Oromia region may be linked to the large number of registrees from this part of the country. As was the case in previous months, the majority of migrants registered across MRCs were between 18-29 year old males, reportedly traveling without identity documentation (91%).
While 42% of registrees were headed on the eastern route towards the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, another 26% were headed to Somalia and 11% were returning home to their country of residence. Migration to Europe continued on an upward trend, with the number of migrants declaring that Europe was their final destination trippling compared to September (13% of total). The largest number of migrants headed to Europe were tracked in Metema, 92% of the migrants registered at this MRC in October. While the profiles of migrants on the eastern and northern (towards Europe) routes are similar, largely 18-29 year-old males, the profiles of migrants migrating within the Horn of Africa, to Somalia and within Ethiopia, are more varied with the age distribution more evenly spread out and females and minors constituting 44% and 39% of registrees using this route, respectively.