GENEVA – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has introduced the Routes Monitor, a new data platform that provides the most comprehensive view yet of mixed migration movements along major global routes. Updated monthly, the platform aggregates information from UNHCR, national authorities, UN and NGO partners, as well as media and social media monitoring. This enables stakeholders to track evolving trends, identify protection needs, and support more effective responses, offering alternatives to dangerous journeys and improving safety for people on the move.
The platform focuses on protecting vulnerable populations and analysing increasingly complex movements, where refugees fleeing conflict or persecution often travel alongside people moving for other reasons. UNHCR plans to progressively expand the platform by adding additional routes and route segments to provide a more complete picture of global displacement patterns.
Elizabeth Tan, UNHCR’s Director of the Division of Protection and Solutions, highlighted that the tool offers a comparative view of movements across countries and regions, helping identify trends along routes and supporting coordinated responses that prioritize protection and solutions. In 2025, the platform recorded nearly 200,000 departures and more than 151,000 arrivals along monitored routes, covering Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. While Mediterranean routes currently have the most data due to established monitoring, other corridors like the Western Africa–Atlantic and the Bay of Bengal–Andaman Sea continue to see movement, though reporting remains limited in some areas.
The Routes Monitor also tracks deaths and disappearances, recording over 2,600 people lost at sea in 2025 across monitored routes. UNHCR notes this figure likely underestimates the true human cost, as many incidents occur in remote areas where verification is difficult. Tan emphasized that lower recorded arrivals often reflect tighter border controls rather than reduced displacement, pushing people onto riskier routes while the drivers of migration and protection needs remain urgent.
Designed for practitioners including States, UN and NGO partners, refugee-led organizations, and academic researchers, the Routes Monitor supports evidence-based analysis, advocacy, and improved protection for people forced to flee. By making information from different routes easier to access and compare, the platform aims to close existing knowledge gaps and enhance coordinated humanitarian responses.
