Chloe Sydney

How Smuggling Really Works | Mixed Migration Centre Data from 80,000 migrants and 450 smugglers shows how smuggling really works — and why restrictive policies and limited legal pathways strengthen the trade.

Basé sur plus de 80 000 entretiens avec réfugiés et migrants et plus de 450 entretiens avec des passeurs, le rapport publié par @mixedmigration.org indique que l’approche actuelle profite, malgré elle, aux passeurs.

mixedmigration.org/resource/how...

Pyrénées-Atlantiques - Contrôles aux frontières - 5 245 personnes contrôlées : 21 étrangers interpellés en situation irrégulière. La préfecture des Pyrénées-Atlantiques a piloté une vaste opération de contrôle menée par la force frontières. La sous-préfète, directrice de cabinet, s’est rendue sur le terrain pour saluer l’engagem...

Près de chez moi: contrôles aux frontières pour "entraver les activités des réseaux criminels organisés autour du trafic d’êtres humains". Dommage que mon nouveau rapport sur les passeurs ne soit pas en français pour faire évoluer la réponse actuelle.

www.lasemainedespyrenees.fr/pyrenees-atl...

How Smuggling Really Works | Mixed Migration Centre Data from 80,000 migrants and 450 smugglers shows how smuggling really works — and why restrictive policies and limited legal pathways strengthen the trade.

How does smuggling really work? Find out in the new report I wrote for @mixedmigration.org, based on over 80,000 interviews with #refugees and #migrants and 450+ smugglers.

mixedmigration.org/resource/how...

Hardline migration policies are fuelling people smuggling, report finds As leaders try to break smugglers’ business model, research suggests strategy so far has had opposite effect

In the year's most unsurprising news

Syrian refugees torn between staying or returning home - Mixed Migration Centre A Syrian refugee weighs the pull of home against the realities of return, facing insecurity, loss and limited prospects in a region still marked by conflict.

"I feel a deep emotional pull and nostalgia for my homeland, but I also know I need to set aside emotions and think rationally," a #refugee from #Syria tells @mixedmigration.org.

Read more in the latest Mixed Migration Review #MMR2025.

mmr2025.mixedmigration.org/mmr/2025/syr...

Great time to return from maternity leave: the Mixed Migration Review 2025 is out!

This year, @mixedmigration.org's flagship report explores #migration in the context of geopolitical turmoil.

Happy reading!

#MMR2025

This year's Mixed Migration Review #MMR2025 examines how migration dynamics are reshaping in response to a context of intensified geopolitical turmoil. Join us for the online launch on Nov 20, 14:00-15:30 CET.
💻➡️ Register on Zoom: https://f.mtr.cool/qhbvurkhfe

The mathematics of starvation: how Israel caused a famine in Gaza Israel controls the flow of food into Gaza. It has calculated how many calories Palestinians need to stay alive. Its data shows only a fraction has been allowed in

This is a very clear historical and current summary, and utterly damning. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Trafficking and exploitation in mixed migration | Mixed Migration Centre This article looks at the experience of 4,131 people who reported being subject to trafficking and exploitation.

Of 73,097 migrants we surveyed worldwide, 5.7% report experiencing trafficking / exploitation. While the data can't be considered representative - it does provide insight into experiences & profiles of survivors. @chloe-sydney.bsky.social   explores the findings 🧵 ⬇️
 

New report on smuggling & migration to Europe: Are EU & UK policies stopping irregular migration? Our findings show deterrence isn’t preventing irregular migration — but reshaping it, at great human cost to migrants & to the benefit of smuggling networks 🧵 1/7

Horror and hope in migration: voices of women on the move | Mixed Migration Centre For international women's day we share their stories of horror and hope through selected data and quotes, highlighting gender-based violence as both a driver of migration and an extreme risk for those...

"They chained us by the feet, sometimes they came and raped us […] I was there for 3 months and I managed to escape. I still have the mark of the chain." - Venezuelan lady in Colombia

This article was tough to write - but it's also about women's bravery & resilience. Read on: tinyurl.com/4p8warjw

Opinion | Congo Is Bleeding. Where Is the Outrage? (Gift Article) This is not the first time the world has overlooked violence in the country.

"While the world and media are fixated on the first days of the Trump administration, Rwanda apparently saw an opportunity to act without consequence."

Read the opinion peace by @denismukwege.bsky.social (2018 Nobel Peace Prize laureate & founder of Panzi):

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/o...

In Ukraine, the suspension of U.S. funding has forced the Danish Refugee Council (which @mixedmigration.org is part of) to stop clearing the equivalent of 50 football fields of land contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordnances. Find out more about the impacts here:

drc.ngo/resources/ne...

Today I presented @mixedmigration.org to around a hundred 10-year-olds.

Their (excellent) questions included "how/when has data you collect helped make people’s journeys safer?"

Our UNICEF-funded 4Mi project in Honduras is a good example of our data informing programming. More here: t.ly/LbZ_G

At least 50 bodies of migrants were found in two mass graves in Libya: bit.ly/4hxWp86

Whenever you see news about "interceptions by Libyan CoastGuard", remember:
🔴mass graves
🔴Detention
🔴Shootings
🔴Thirst & hunger
🔴Forced Labour
🔴Sexual violence
🔴Pushbacks/Pullbacks
🔴Violating right to asylum

📢 We are hiring! MMC is seeking a Data Protection Consultant to strengthen its data protection practices. 
⏱️ Application deadline: 15 February 2025
📍 Location: Geneva
📝 Apply: https://www.pro.drc.ngo/resources/tenders/gva-mmc-25-957/

Check out @mixedmigration.org's 2024 achievements, including 18,675 interviews with #refugees and #migrants in 26 countries, feeding into our global database of 78,000+ interviews.

Access the data here: mixedmigration.org/4mi/4mi-inte...

Bulgarian police ‘blocked rescue’ of teenage migrants who froze to death Report by rights groups alleges border police refused to rescue boys and blocked activists’ efforts to save them

Unfortunately this isn't a one-off

More and more people, including kids, are dying while trying to cross into the EU via land. Calls for help to emergency services are being ignored

This is where Europe's growing anti-refugee/migrant sentiment has got us www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Risks and rewards: How travelling with children shapes migrant decision-making In a new PACES Perspectives blog, researcher Chloe Sydney illustrates the dilemmas parents and caregivers make on the world's major migration routes

How does travelling with #children impact #migrant decision-making? In this blog, we draw on data collected by the @mixedmigration.org in Italy, Tunisia, and Niger as part of the PACES project to explore find out more.

www.iss.nl/en/news/risk...

1 Dollar, 1 World I have been at WHO for over 10 years. Like my colleagues, I have worked my a** off day and night to fight Covid and work towards universal access to health care. This place frustrates me every day.

Support the WHO:

whofoundation.donorsupport.co/page/FUNEKRB...

#1dollar1world

"Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution" - Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

See also Article 33 of the Refugee Convention on the prohibition of expulsion or refoulement.

GUARANTEEING THE STATES PROTECTION AGAINST INVASION – The White House BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United

Donald Trump allows the U.S. government to stop adhering to international asylum law.

"An invasion is ongoing at the southern border .. [officials can] repel, repatriate, or remove" migrants, suspending their "physical entry" into the U.S.".

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Protecting The Meaning And Value Of American Citizenship – The White House By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.

The text of Trump's citizenship executive order attacks the citizenship not just of Americans born in the US to immigrants without legal status, but also of people without lawful permanent residency. A reminder that you can't change the constitution through an EO. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

What impact on mixed migration if Trump enacts mass deportations, shuts asylum, & toughens migration policies? Migration pressures won’t disappear—conflict, poverty & climate change will keep driving movement. So what can happen? Full article here: https://bit.ly/40Brd1E

Afghans evacuated by US in chaos of withdrawal are languishing in foreign camps, documents reveal Exclusive: records show evacuees with pending applications to enter US ‘forced to remain in limbo’ in at least 36 countries, some in ‘untenable conditions’

Exclusive: Afghans evacuated by US in chaos of withdrawal are languishing in foreign camps, documents reveal.

New from me, for @theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

A sharper lense on vulnerability: migrant youth in Sudan & Ethiopia | Mixed Migration Centre This report provides a statistical analysis of vulnerability of migrant youth in Sudan and Ethiopia based on data collected in 2022-2023.

New @mixedmigration.org report. Through regression analysis, we statistically defined which factors increase #vulnerability of young #migrants in #Sudan & #Ethiopia. Key risk factors: working, using smugglers, and nationality. More here: mixedmigration.org/resource/mig...

It's been a great few months with @mixedmigration.org. Looking forward to a busy year ahead, with 4Mi data collection with #migrants (incl. #refugees, victims of trafficking, and people seeking better lives) planned in 30+ countries along the world's major #migration routes. Stay tuned!

🌍 On international migrant day #IMD2024 we share what 60,000 migrants told us, busting common myths. Myth: Smugglers play a key role in luring people into irregular migration. Reality: Only 4% of 60,000 surveyed migrants cited smugglers as an influence. Full answers below

Today I revisited a report on durable solutions in #Syria I wrote for @idmc-geneva.bsky.social in 2018, with lessons from Bosnia, Colombia, Iraq, Kosovo & Sri Lanka. Still relevant, e.g. on property restitution, minority returns, and personal documentation. Worth a read!

tinyurl.com/yu27fafv

How the collapse of Assad’s regime will impact Syria’s mixed migration dynamics | Mixed Migration Centre This article explores how the collapse of Assad's regime will impact Syrian displacement and mixed migration dynamics.

"The consequences of a hasty, premature and large-scale forced return of Syrian #refugees would be severe and would likely backfire [...] This could ultimately even lead to renewed refugee movements out of #Syria."

Read more: tinyurl.com/5cretbxw

@mixedmigration.org @bramfrouws.bsky.social