Tackling the root causes of human trafficking and smuggling from Eritrea — The need for an empirically grounded EU policy on mixed migration in the Horn of Africa

The Horn of Africa (HoA) remains a major source of mixed migra­tion, with peo­ple mov­ing to neigh­bour­ing coun­tries, the Gulf, South­ern Africa and Europe. There are mul­ti­ple dri­vers of migra­tion, from issues around polit­i­cal per­se­cu­tion, armed con­flict and nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, to prob­lems access­ing liveli­hoods in con­texts of extreme pover­ty and eco­nom­ic exclu­sion, which is often the result of delib­er­ate gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy. While mul­ti­ple dri­vers may affect the same indi­vid­ual and blur the dis­tinc­tion between refugee and migrant, the price peo­ple on the move are pay­ing has become remark­ably high in recent years, and many have lost their lives.