The International Organization for Migration (IOM), UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and ICVA have launched a new online dashboard designed to map protection and assistance services available to refugees, asylum-seekers, and migrants travelling along major mixed movement routes, beginning with the Western Africa Atlantic Route. The platform was officially launched on 12 May 2026 in Geneva as part of broader efforts to strengthen coordination, programme planning, and humanitarian responses across regions.
The dashboard provides a cross-regional overview of existing services and identifies urgent protection and assistance gaps along the route. The tool is intended to support referrals, improve evidence-based planning, strengthen resource mobilization, and help refugees and migrants access timely and relevant information and services closer to where they are located. The organizations involved also plan to gradually expand the platform to cover additional major mixed movement routes globally.
According to the agencies, the platform will help humanitarian partners and authorities identify areas where support is available and where critical gaps remain. By improving visibility of service coverage, the dashboard aims to support interventions that reduce reliance on irregular and dangerous migration routes, including smuggling networks, while strengthening local support systems and addressing the risks associated with irregular movement.
The Western Africa Atlantic Route has increasingly become one of the world’s most dangerous mixed movement corridors. The route stretches from inland Sahelian regions through border towns, mining zones, and coastal departure points toward the Canary Islands. Refugees, asylum-seekers, and migrants travelling along this route face significant protection risks, including violence, exploitation, human trafficking, arbitrary detention, expulsions, and dangerous sea crossings.
The new dashboard supports a joint approach by IOM, UNHCR, and their partners to reduce harm, save lives, and improve access to protection, assistance, and stability. The mapping initiative is also expected to support more targeted humanitarian action by helping connect vulnerable populations with available services and support mechanisms.
UNHCR stated that the dashboard represents an important step in bringing together humanitarian actors, including refugee-led organizations, to better understand where services are available and where further support is urgently needed. The organization emphasized that additional support from governments and donors will be necessary to close protection gaps and ensure that people can access assistance without resorting to further dangerous movement.
IOM highlighted the importance of coordinated responses across the full length of migration routes rather than isolated interventions at individual points. The organization noted that the dashboard provides operational actors with a clearer understanding of service availability and unmet needs, helping support more coordinated and evidence-based responses across borders.
ICVA emphasized the critical role of local NGOs, community-based organizations, and refugee- and migrant-led groups in delivering frontline assistance, often under limited resource conditions. The organization called for increased direct donor support to these local actors to ensure sustainable access to protection and humanitarian assistance for people on the move.
The mapping exercise confirmed that several governments and humanitarian organizations have expanded services along the route, particularly in locations such as Nouakchott and Nouadhibou in Mauritania, and Agadez and Niamey in Niger. Existing facilities in these areas provide services including identification support, healthcare, shelter, legal assistance, and other forms of humanitarian aid.
Despite these efforts, major structural challenges remain. Specialized services such as legal aid, child protection, gender-based violence response, and trafficking-related assistance continue to be concentrated in major urban centres, leaving border regions and smaller communities underserved. Humanitarian agencies also noted that while emergency responses to shipwrecks, disembarkations, and expulsions are often available, longer-term protection and inclusion support remains insufficient.
The organizations further noted that insecurity, restricted humanitarian access, and funding shortages continue to affect service delivery and coordination efforts in several areas along the route. Some humanitarian actors have been forced to scale back or discontinue essential programmes due to limited funding, increasing the need for stronger international support and investment in evidence-based protection responses.
According to the agencies, the dashboard will be updated twice annually through collaboration among UN agencies, governments, NGOs, ICVA, and affected communities. By consolidating data across countries and regions, the platform is expected to improve coordination and help ensure that protection and assistance efforts are directed toward areas where needs are greatest.
