Flow Monitoring Report IOM Zimbabwe | December 2024

Eighty-nine per cent of the migrants surveyed stated they were Zimbabwean nationals and six per cent stated they were Zambians. Sixty-one per cent of the interviewed Zambian nationals were travelling to Zimbabwe to conduct commercial activities mainly to sell clothes. There was a 67 per cent increase in total movements compared to the previous month. This increase can be attributed to the festive holiday in December. Inflows accounted for 74 per cent of observed movements, while outflows made up 26 per cent. The leading sending districts were Beitbridge (62%), Harare (14%), and Chiredzi (6%), whereas the main receiving districts were Harare (31%), Bulawayo (24%) and Beitbridge (12%). Matabeleland South province reported the highest number of outflows (65%), whereas Harare province recorded the most inflows (32%). Migrants from Matabeleland South were primarily headed to Limpopo (62%), Eastern Cape (18%) and Gauteng (17%) in South Africa. Among those arriving in Harare, 58 per cent came from Gauteng province in South Africa and 11 per cent from Lusaka province in Zambia.

The South Africa-Zimbabwe corridor had the highest number of movements (46,204) recorded over the reporting period followed by the Zambia-Zimbabwe corridor with 3,016 movements. Migrants using the South Africa-Zimbabwe corridor were mainly involved in short-term movements (54%) and long-term economic movements (15%). On the Zambia-Zimbabwe corridor, the primary types of movement were short-term movements (59%) and long-term economic movements (25%). The Zimbabwe Department of Immigration Control recorded 322,931 entries and 185,814 exits at the Beitbridge border post, and 19,886 entries and 4,254 exits at the Chirundu border post.