Outgoing migration from Ethiopia along the Eastern Route rose sharply in 2025, with total tracked movements increasing by 18 percent to more than half a million, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday in a report.
The report said the Eastern Route is one of the busiest and riskiest migration routes in the world travelled by hundreds of thousands of migrants, most of whom travel irregularly, often relying on smugglers to facilitate movement.
“Tracked outgoing movements has increased by around one-fifth (+18 percent) between 2024 (430,200) and 2025 (506,600),” said the report, noting that the increase reflects new smuggling tactics that both bypassed checkpoints and accelerated flows—including the growing use of more remote routes across Djibouti.
Ethiopians accounted for the overwhelming majority of migrants on the route, making up 97 percent of those tracked, with economic hardship cited as the primary driver in 95 percent of cases, the report noted.
Despite the overall rise in movements along the route, exits specifically from Ethiopia declined slightly by 4% to 224,400 in 2025. IOM linked the drop to enforcement measures, including arrests of smuggling networks and increased border controls, as well as disruptions caused by return operations from Djibouti.
At the same time, return migration to Ethiopia continued to rise. The report found that forced returns from Saudi Arabia reached 95,100 in 2025, surpassing the previous year and bringing the cumulative total since 2017 to more than 750,000.
The number of children among returnees also increased, with IOM reporting a 14% rise in forcibly returned minors to 4,700.
IOM further warned that the route is becoming increasingly dangerous. “In 2025, 922 deaths and disappearances were recorded along the Eastern Route, almost double the 558 reported in 2024,” the agency said, describing the year as the deadliest on record since monitoring began in 2014.
Migrants face “armed violence, arrests, floods, detention and mistreatment, deportation, hazardous transport, insecurity, and reduced support from local communities,” particularly along transit corridors in Djibouti, Somalia, and Yemen, the report added.
Looking ahead, IOM said Ethiopia’s projected economic growth in 2026 could ease some migration pressures by improving livelihoods, but warned that inflation and persistent unemployment may continue to drive outward movement.
MG/as/APA