Seefar’s campaign in Niger has successfully raised awareness amongst 7,500 transit and potential migrants about the risks and realities of irregular migration, enabling them to make safer migration decisions and avoid serious and potentially deadly risks on the journey to Europe.
The campaign ran from June 2019 to May 2020 and was aimed at providing tailored and reliable information on the dangers of irregular migration to male and female migrants transiting through Niger as well as West African potential migrants.
A new purpose-built The Migrant Project En Route campaign provided facts and news on migration in multiple languages and drew on the existing trust and recognition of The Migrant Project brand among West African potential migrants.
The campaign deployed an integrated approach utilising large scale community events and word-of-mouth counsellors to spread key campaign messages. These events reached 4,800 transit and potential migrants and significantly increased the reach of the campaign within the local communities. Counsellors also held events in some secondary and vocational schools in order to inform and protect students from unsafe migration.
Community engagement was reinforced through media and online outreach. The Migrant Project En Route achieved a huge social following with more than 870,000 post engagements on the campaign’s Facebook page, and generated over 100 pieces of migration-related coverage in key media outlets in Niger.
With the outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020, the campaign quickly pivoted to provide remote one-to-one counselling. Through more than 10,500 consultations with transit and potential migrants, The Migrant Project En Route was able to shift attitudes and behaviours on irregular migration amongst a large proportion of beneficiaries, with 71% of consultees reporting an increased awareness on the key risks of irregular migration and some consultees saying they have abandoned or delayed their irregular migration plans after receiving information from The Migrant Project En Route.