Women And Girls In Mixed Migration Flows To Europe.pdf

Women and girls make up around a third of asylum applicants in the EU, a small but growing proportion. The proportion of female asylum applicants has continued to increase since the launch of the EU-Turkey Statement in March 2016. Vulnerability among refugees and other migrants is influenced by multiple factors, not just gender. Women and girls face different risks to men and boys at different points along the journey, leaving them both more and less vulnerable to specific threats. Tightened restrictions on entry to Europe place all those who continue to travel at greater risk of violence and exploitation than prior to the closure of the Western Balkans route. Humanitarian responders and government policy-makers should do more to account for other factors affecting vulnerability, such as socio-economic status, access to livelihoods, basic services and assistance.

Between 2014 and 2016, women and girls made up a relatively small proportion of arrivals to Europe, accounting for less than a third of all first time asylum applicants. Despite the availability of some sex- and age-disaggregated data on arrivals by sea and formal asylum applications, relatively little is known about the specific drivers, triggers and experiences of women and girls travelling to Europe and how they may differ from those of men. In order to address this information gap, this paper draws upon existing data about women's migration in general, together with more recent studies conducted in transit and arrival countries to examine the characteristics and concerns specific to women and girls travelling to Europe as part of mixed migration flows, primarily from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Women and girls make up around half of refugees worldwide and nearly half of global migrants are understood to be women. However, the balance between men and women among refugees and other migrants differs considerably across regions and cultures. Of the 1,257,030 first time asylum applicants to European Union (EU) countries in 2015, females accounted for only 27%, the lowest proportion for eight years. Between January and October 2016, however, the proportion of females increased to 32% of all asylum applicants – an 18.5% increase compared to 2015.