Educating Youth on Safe Migration SAFE-MIT
Equipping teachers with immersive, interactive tools to help youth make informed migration decisions, and building the capacity of local partners to run evidence-based campaigns.
This project is ongoing. Results are preliminary.
“The project moved my students from awareness to action.”
Mustapha Hammed, teacher, Kwara State, Nigeria
In Africa, inaccurate information about the risks of migration, reinforced by social media and low awareness of the realities of life at destination, are driving young people toward irregular journeys.
SAFE-MIT: A Shared Foundation to Protect Against Risks of Irregular Migration and Trafficking is funded by the European Union through ICMPD’s Migration and Mobility Dialogue (MMD) Grant Facility, and implemented by Seefar together with four consortium partners - The Youth Empowerment Society (YES) in Morocco, The Youth Cafe (TYC) in Kenya, Association des Jeunes pour le Développement Local (AJDL) in Senegal, and Media Coalition and Awareness to Halt Human Trafficking (MeCAHT). The project replaces myth with lived reality through classroom education, evidence-led digital campaigns, and strengthening local NGO capacity to sustain the message long after the programme ends.
The Challenge
African youth often make migration decisions based on distorted perceptions amplified by social media. In Nigeria, 72% of young people expect European countries to help them find work on arrival.¹ In Senegal, only 40% of those aged 17–30 are fully aware of the dangers of irregular migration.²
Our Approach
SAFE-MIT deployed three complementary strategies: immersive classroom education through the escape game Turning Tides, large-scale social media campaigns and influencers’ collaborations, and digital capacity strengthening for local NGO partners across eight countries.
Watch the SAFE-MIT project overview on YouTube An overview of SAFE-MIT’s work to help young people make informed migration decisions across four countries.
How the Project Worked
The Escape Game in Classrooms
At the heart of SAFE-MIT is Seefar’s educational escape game Turning Tides, first developed in Morocco through the NLM project and now adapted to classroom realities in three additional countries. Rather than attending lectures, students work in small teams to navigate real-world migration dilemmas, make decisions, weigh consequences, and build empathy through play.
Across the four countries, 1,250+ teachers were trained to deliver migration education through the game. The project reached over 108,000 students against an initial target of 65,000 — 166% of its target. The approach was designed to encourage students to question assumptions, recognise misleading claims and make more informed decisions.
See how students used interactive learning to explore the realities, risks and alternatives to irregular migration.
Data-Driven Social Media Campaigns
Across 16 campaigns on Meta and TikTok, The Migrant Project (TMP) - the project’s public facing brand - reached over 59.5 million people exceeding the 40 million target by 48%. Across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, the project ran over 630 campaigns, generating 25.6 million page engagements, 4,200+ comments and 655,000+link clicks.This included 20 rounds of A/B testing to identify the most effective messages and content, with short-form video found to be the top-performing format.
Eleven influencers amplified the content further, sharing 166 posts, stories and reels, and reaching 8.6 million people with an engagement of 1.6M. The digital centrepiece, Informed Migration, hosts interactive games, a myth-busting quiz and country-specific videos in English, French, Swahili and Arabic - built to outlast the project itself.
Strengthening Partners’ Digital Capacity
Four NGOs in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tunisia, and The Gambia were supported in developing their own evidence-based social media campaigns. All 16 staff demonstrated improved skills, and these four partner NGOs have since reached over 6 million unique accounts independently.
Strengthening Digital Capacity of Partners to Run Local Campaigns
Local ownership is central to SAFE-MIT. The project strengthens partner organisations' technical, operational and communications capacity so they can sustain this work independently. Seefar trained four "neighbouring partner" NGOs: Capsa Horizon (Tunisia), TaYa (Ethiopia), Reach A Hand (Uganda), and World View (The Gambia), to run their own social media campaigns on irregular migration. All 16 trained staff showed improved knowledge and skills (100% success rate against a 60% target), with partners publishing 111 posts reaching 6M+ accounts across the four countries.
The partnership extended SAFE-MITs approach beyond its four core implementing countries and helped equip local organizations with skills to sustain their own campaigns.
“The training helped us move from ad hoc posting to professional, evidence-based campaigns. We can now identify who is most vulnerable and reach them with content that inspires safer choices.”
Ahmed A. Salami, Director, Worldview, The Gambia
From Evidence to Policy
SAFE-MIT’s influence is already reaching policy making spaces in Africa and Europe. Across Kenya, Senegal, and Morocco, two themes stand out: learning through play as an effective, inclusive method, and the case for mainstreaming migration awareness across national curricula. Both are now feeding into discussions with ministries of education, and shaping the regional and international policy conversations on irregular migration and trafficking.
In November 2025, project findings and outputs were presented at the Joint Thematic Meeting of the Rabat and Khartoum Process on Migrant Smuggling and Trafficking in Human Beings, held in Abuja, Nigeria. In December 2025, the Khartoum Process Thematic Meeting From Policy to Practice in Aswan, Egypt, provided a further platform to share the project’s evidence base and methodological innovations. At the global level, The Youth Cafe (TYC) represented the project at the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF), amplifying youth voices in a key multilateral space.
In September 2026, SAFE-MIT brought together project funders, implementing partners, policy makers, teachers and other stakeholders for a regional learning event to reflect on the project’s results and lessons. Discussions highlighted strong support for integrating migration awareness into formal education: 85% of surveyed teachers said the content should be included in school curricula, while 91% of surveyed school directors supported its inclusion in national curricula. Sustaining this progress will require institutional commitment, appropriate teaching resources and strong safeguarding measures.
Stories from the Field
Haitham, Moroccan student:
Seydina & Awa: Students in Senegal:
Hear from Educational Outreach Experts
Hear From Teachers
Watch more interviews and videos from the field on our Youtube playlist
A Moment of Conscience, Kwara State, Nigeria
A Teacher on the Front Line: Nairobi, Kenya
In Nigeria, after a session in Kwara State, one of Mustapha Hammed’s students asked: “Sir, what happened to the people in the game?” “She wasn’t asking about fictional characters,” he reflects. “My students weren’t just listening. They were living the experience, facing impossible choices.” That moment moved his class from awareness to action.
“The Escape Game helps participants better grasp the realities faced by migrants, the dangers they encounter, and the local alternatives available. We plan to use this tool to raise awareness in both schools and communities.”
Tidiane Diop, teacher, CEM Tatène, Thiès region, Senegal
Key Achievements & Results
108,000+
students reached against a target of 65,000 students (166% of target).
1,250+
teachers trained across Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Morocco.
83%
students assessed demonstrated increased knowledge.
59.5M
People reached
through social media campaigns and influencer content, 48% above the 40 million target.
25.6M
Social media engagements generated across digital campaigns, alongside 4,264 comments and 655,396 link clicks.
168
educational resources published to the Informed Migration platform, exceeding the target of 100 resources.
6M+
unique accounts reached by local NGO partners in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tunisia, and The Gambia
100%
neighbouring partner staff demonstrated improved social media marketing skills
91%
Surveyed teachers said they planned to continue migration-awareness sessions the following year.
70%
Schools surveyed organised additional migration-awareness activities.
4
National events held by Implementing project partners in Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Morocco.
These results show both the scale of SAFE-MIT’s reach and the value of equipping educators to carry learning forward. The project exceeded its student-reach target, recorded knowledge gains among students and teachers, and strengthened the capacity of local partners to deliver migration-awareness campaigns.
This article was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union, contracted by ICMPD through the MMD Grant Facility. The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of Seefar and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union or ICMPD.
Sources
1 Mixed Migration Centre. (2022). Mixed migration review 2022: Risk in context: Decision-making in irregular and mixed migration (p. 89). https://mixedmigration.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Mixed-Migration-Review-2022.pdf
2 International Organization for Migration. Irregular migration from West Africa: Robust evaluation of peer-to-peer awareness-raising activities in four countries. https://publications.iom.int/books/irregular-migration-west-africa-robust-evaluation-peer-peer-awareness-raising-activities-four
3 Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). (2025). IGAD Population and Migration Report 2025 (Second Edition). https://igad.int/the-igad-population-and-migration-report-2025-second-edition/