Migration in Lesotho: A Country Profile 2023

Migration in Lesotho: A Country Profile 2023 is the first consolidation of an analytical representation of the impact of migration on Lesotho’s socioeconomic situation. The Migration Profile is an authoritative description of migration trends in Lesotho. It provides an insight into the complexity of migration situation of Lesotho as a landlocked country enclaved within its only neighbour, South Africa, and complications brought by porosity of borders between the two countries leading to high irregular migration. The Migration Profile also provides an analysis of the impact of migration on Lesotho’s fragile economy, which depends entirely on South Africa and to a large extent on remittances that contribute over 20 per cent of Lesotho’s GDP. The Migration Profile also identifies policy gaps that should be addressed to ensure that the country is compliant with international migrants’ protection norms and principles. The objective of developing the Migration Profile is to support evidence-based policymaking and promote mainstreaming of migration into the policy planning process by making current existing migration data available to government and other stakeholders through the development and dissemination of a Migration Profile. The process to develop the Migration in Lesotho: A Country Profile 2023 enhanced migration data fluency and analysis skills of stakeholders involved in the development of the report. The process also strengthened migration data production coordination role of the Bureau of Statistics due to enhanced data sharing capacities of migration data producing government ministries and departments.