KAMPALA — Uganda is emerging as a major destination and transit point for migrants in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) region, with more than 1.2 million people entering the country and about 1.3 million leaving in 2022, according to a regional migration report.
The figures, contained in the IGAD Population and Migration Statistics Report, Second Edition, published in July 2025, highlight Uganda’s growing importance in regional population movements while exposing significant gaps in the data needed to properly monitor migration and protect vulnerable people.
According to the report, non-residents accounted for the majority of people crossing Uganda’s borders, a pattern that has persisted over several years and reinforces the country’s role as both a destination and transit route for migrants.
Data from Uganda’s Ministry of Internal Affairs cited in the report show that the country recorded 1,211,861 arrivals and 1,300,001 departures in 2022.
Of those who entered Uganda, 814,508 were non-residents, compared with 397,353 residents. Among those leaving the country, 790,746 were non-residents, while 509,255 were residents.
The report says the dominance of non-resident crossings was not limited to 2022, noting that non-residents consistently outnumbered residents among people crossing Uganda’s borders during the period under review.
The trend was already evident before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2016, Uganda recorded more than 1.8 million arrivals, including approximately 1.3 million non-residents, while departures approached 1.9 million, with more than 1.3 million involving non-residents.
Cross-border movement subsequently declined sharply in 2020 after governments introduced restrictions to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Movement began recovering in 2021, when Uganda registered approximately 722,000 arrivals and 866,000 departures. By 2022, arrivals had climbed to more than 1.2 million, while departures reached about 1.3 million.
The report says the recovery in movement must, however, be matched by stronger systems for identifying and protecting people at risk of exploitation.
One of the most significant concerns highlighted is the rise in reported human trafficking cases in Uganda.
The report shows that trafficking cases increased from 421 in 2021 to 1,200 in 2022, with children accounting for 532 cases, or about 44 percent, while adults accounted for 668 cases.
The increase represents more than a two-fold rise in a single year and forms part of a longer-term upward trend. Reported cases stood at 286 in 2018, before falling to 252 in 2019 and 214 in 2020. They then increased to 421 in 2021 and surged to 1,200 in 2022.
IGAD links the sharp decline recorded in 2020 partly to COVID-19 restrictions, which significantly reduced movement across borders.
The regional body also points to poverty, limited employment opportunities and other socio-economic pressures as factors that can increase people’s vulnerability to trafficking and exploitation.
Children’s involvement in nearly half of the reported cases is particularly concerning because it exposes the extent to which vulnerable groups can be affected by unsafe migration and exploitation.
The report also identifies changing forms of exploitation. Labour exploitation emerged as the predominant form of trafficking in 2020 and 2021, suggesting that trafficking patterns can shift in response to economic and social conditions.
IGAD therefore calls for prevention and protection measures that can adapt to emerging forms of exploitation rather than relying on fixed approaches.
Uganda’s migration challenges are part of a much broader regional trend.
The IGAD report estimates that the number of international migrants in the region increased from 4.1 million in 2013 to 6.8 million in 2022, representing a 65.9 percent increase over the decade.
The number of working-age international migrants rose from 2.7 million to 4.3 million during the same period, while the region had approximately 2.5 million migrant workers in 2022.
The growth is occurring amid political instability, economic inequalities, climate-related shocks and environmental degradation, which the report identifies among the factors shaping migration across the region.
IGAD says the region increasingly functions simultaneously as a source, transit corridor and destination for migrants, making reliable migration statistics critical to effective policy and planning.
However, the report identifies major weaknesses in the availability and consistency of migration data.
Only Uganda, Ethiopia and South Sudan provided partial time-series data on irregular migration and related protection risks, while Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan provided data on cross-border movements.
The limited availability of comparable data makes it difficult to establish the full scale of irregular migration, trafficking, migrant smuggling and other protection concerns across the region.
The report says the vulnerability of young people and women is particularly evident in irregular migration patterns.
In South Sudan, for example, men consistently accounted for more than 75 percent of irregular migrants, although the proportion of women increased from 8 percent in 2018 to 25 percent in 2020.
The figures, according to IGAD, point to deeper socio-economic pressures that require targeted prevention and protection interventions.
The region is also facing substantial forced displacement. By the end of 2022, IGAD member states were hosting approximately 4.3 million refugees, equivalent to about one in every six refugees globally.
Women and children made up a significant proportion of refugee and asylum-seeking populations, further increasing the need for protection mechanisms capable of responding to multiple forms of vulnerability.
In Uganda, migration management involves a National Coordination Mechanism and a Technical Working Group, bringing together government ministries, agencies and other stakeholders.
The mechanisms cover areas including irregular migration, labour migration, trafficking in persons, migrant smuggling, forced displacement, migration and development, and migration health.
Uganda also draws migration information from administrative records compiled by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, as well as national surveys and censuses.
The report cites the Uganda National Household Survey, Uganda Demographic and Health Survey and National Labour Force Surveys among the sources of migration-related information. Migration modules were also incorporated into the 2024 National Population and Housing Census.
Despite these mechanisms, IGAD says significant gaps remain.
The report recommends greater use of administrative records, faster and more consistent reporting, harmonisation of migration definitions and methodologies, stronger coordination among institutions and better disaggregation of statistics by age and sex.
It also calls for improved systems to capture information on internally displaced people and other vulnerable migrant groups who may not be adequately reflected in existing statistics.
For Uganda, the findings underline the complexity of its position within regional migration networks.
The country is not simply receiving or sending travellers. Its borders connect it to wider movements of people across the IGAD region, while its institutions are simultaneously dealing with trafficking, irregular migration, forced displacement and other protection challenges.
IGAD argues that migration, when properly managed, can contribute to economic development, social stability and regional integration. Poor migration governance, however, can increase the risk of vulnerability, marginalisation and exploitation, particularly among low-income and forcibly displaced populations.
Uganda’s 2022 border figures therefore provide an important picture of the scale of movement through the country, but they also expose the need for stronger systems to understand who is moving, why they are moving and what risks they face.
The central challenge for Uganda and the wider IGAD region is increasingly becoming one of governance: ensuring that migration remains safe, orderly and beneficial while preventing vulnerable people from disappearing into gaps in the systems designed to protect them.
It is important to note that the IGAD report uses data available up to 2022. The figures therefore describe migration patterns from that period and should not be interpreted as representing Uganda’s current migration volumes in 2026.
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