A new series of IOM reports published today provide a unique
insight into migration flows to, through and from the Black Sea
Region, a vast track of land connecting nations in Europe, the
Middle East and Central Asia. The region is home to an estimated
350 million inhabitants, including some 23 million migrants.

The profiles, which detail migration patterns in 12 countries
(Armenia, Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova,
Romania, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine),
underline the fact that poverty and a lack of job opportunities
are the main push factors for migration flows within and
outside of the region.

It notes that limited opportunities for legal migration continue
to fuel irregular migration, with the Black Sea region at the
crossroad of several smuggling and trafficking routes towards the
European Union, such as the Eastern Mediterranean, the Central and
Eastern European and the Balkan routes.

Human trafficking, within and from the region, remains one of
the biggest challenges that many of the Black Sea countries, such
as Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania, have to
face.

The report details migration patterns within the region and
especially towards the Russian Federation, which hosts more than 12
million migrants. These migrants are in particular Russian-speakers
from the Commonwealth of Independent States who are either employed
legally or not in the construction, trade and services sectors.

The report also looks at the role of remittances in the economic
development of the region. Recorded at USD 26.7 billion in 2007,
official remittances contribute significantly to the gross domestic
product, with remittances to Moldova accounting for 36. 2 per cent
of the country’s GDP.

However, the report states that more needs to be done to develop
remittance-linked financial products for migrants, to reduce the
cost of money transfers and to encourage diasporas to invest some
of their remittances productively.

“The purpose of the migration profiles is to provide
reliable and comparable migration data so as to strengthen the
ability of national migration authorities in the region to
effectively manage migration flows,” says Frank Laczko,
IOM’s Head of Research and Publications. “The overall
objective is to contribute towards greater coherence of national
migration policies and to promote regional cooperation.”

The project was funded through IOM’s 1035 facility, which
has supported more than 200 projects in 85 Member States since
2001.

For more information please visit "paragraph-link-no-underline" href=
"http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/" target="" title=
"">http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/ or contact:

Frank Laczcko

IOM Geneva

Tel. +41 22 717 94 16

Email: "mailto:flaczko@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">flaczko@iom.int