Social Policy & Health: Adapting services to needs (medical care, health insurance and assistance) requires an understanding of which status applies to whom.
Legal protection: Although refugees and asylum seekers in Togo have access to certain protection structures, such as the CNAR and asylum procedures, irregular migrants often remain marginalised.
Resources and support: Humanitarian and development programmes (PURS and COSO) allocate funds based on reliable figures for refugees and internally displaced persons. Recognising mobile persons who are not yet covered allows more effective inclusive policies to be targeted at them effectively.
In Togo, as in many other places, the terms ‘refugee’, ‘internally displaced person’ and ‘migrant’ are not just words; they determine rights, protections and access to essential services. Recent statistics and existing structures, when considered alongside international concepts and the local reality, make it clear that there is an urgent need to strengthen laws and practices so that every mobile person can enjoy their full human dignity.