Recent migration news reveals contrasting dynamics, between regulation, cooperation and control. In Senegal, circular migration to Spain takes shape around new recruitment. Mali strengthens its legal framework and its voice in international talks. Chad turns to the links between climate and mobility, while Morocco steps up its fight against irregular departures. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a deal with the United States on expulsions raises questions, and in Cuba a reform opens the economy to the diaspora.
In Senegal, the authorities have launched a new phase of the circular migration programme to Spain. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Senegalese Abroad, candidate interviews began on 7 April in Dakar, after a pre-selection drawn from a call for applications in March. The scheme lets Senegalese workers take temporary jobs in Spanish agriculture, notably picking and packing. Presented as an alternative to irregular emigration, it follows a logic of managed mobility and bilateral cooperation.
In neighbouring Mali, the authorities are strengthening their legal arsenal against trafficking and migrant-smuggling networks. Meeting at the Koulouba Palace, the government adopted new bills to close the gaps in existing rules and to align national law more closely with international commitments. The reform comes as these networks persist across the region. Bamako is also pressing its case abroad. In early April, the Minister for Malians Abroad, Mossa Ag Attaher, took part in a ministerial meeting in Cairo on the Global Compact for Migration. The gathering sought to align African positions ahead of the Review Forum in New York, with a focus on protecting migrants and promoting regular pathways.
In Chad, migration is entering the media and environmental debate. In N’Djamena, the Union of Chadian Journalists, working with the International Organisation for Migration, ran a training workshop that brought media professionals together around climate migration. The initiative aims to deepen understanding of the links between climate change and human mobility, a subject that still gets little coverage.
Further north, Morocco is highlighting its work to control migratory flows. According to the Interior Ministry, the authorities thwarted more than 73,000 attempts at irregular emigration in 2025 and dismantled more than 300 smuggling networks. The data show a persistent migratory pressure in an unstable region, and they show networks that keep adapting and varying their methods.
In Central Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo finds itself at the heart of an unusual arrangement. Around fifteen migrants expelled from the United States were transferred to Kinshasa under a bilateral deal. The Congolese authorities describe a temporary reception mechanism for third-country nationals. The arrangement fits a broader cooperation between the two countries, notably in health and the economy, and it raises questions about the outsourcing of migration policy.
Finally, beyond Africa, Cuba’s migration reform opens new prospects for the diaspora. A decree adopted on 16 April now lets Cubans living abroad invest directly in the national economy. The measure seeks to tap the diaspora’s resources to prop up a struggling economy, and it reflects a shift in the link between migration and development.
Across this picture, migration appears at once as a matter of control, of cooperation and of economic opportunity. It reveals national strategies that swing between reining in movement and drawing on the diaspora.
