Mobility risks and the gender questions in migration governance: Refocusing the Nigeria-Libya-Europe route
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.38140/ijss-2026.vol6.1.02Keywords:
Mobility risks, risk production, migration governance, Nigeria-Libya-Europe corridor, feminist political economyAbstract
The article argues that migration governance along irregular migration corridors reproduces the mobility risks and vulnerabilities it seeks to mitigate. Conceptually informed by the Global Compact for Migration and theoretically grounded in feminist political economy, the article conceptualises borders as labour-market technologies that filter migrants according to global labour demands, rather than as mere physical boundaries. The study employed purposive and snowball sampling methods to address the research objectives and to gather 18 respondents divided into two groups: Nigerian survivors and returnees to Libya (Category A) and government, institutional, and transnational authorities (Category B), utilising an interpretivist-oriented qualitative case study design. Questionnaires and key informant interviews were employed to collect data, which were analysed thematically using NVivo 14. Four themes emerged: empirical examination of risk production along the route, gendered dimensions of mobility risks, coping and survival strategies, and understanding effective gendered migration governance. The findings revealed that the governance architecture provides an informal economy of containment, in which securitisation, deterrence-based policies, and externalised enforcement mechanisms shape the intersection of migrants, mobility risks, and systematic exploitation. Female migrants are subjected to sexual violence and forced prostitution; male migrants face labour exploitation, organ harvesting, and kidnapping, while LGBTQ+ individuals encounter compounded violations. Migrants employ embodied bargaining strategies, such as selling sexuality, labour, or ransom, as survival currencies. The paper concludes that migration governance continues to perpetuate the political economy of managed illegality and proposes gender-mainstreamed, rights-based, and disruptive policy changes aimed at achieving safer migration governance in Africa and beyond.
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