Demining first of all is the removal of landmines for mine action 
humanitarian life-saving reasons.
Removal  includes also improvised explosive devices (IED) and other explosive remnants of war (ERW) as i.e. unexploded ordnance  (UXO) and abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO).
It is overall the set of activities that lead to the removal of mine and ERW hazards including survey, detecting, alarming, marking, mapping, identifying, documenting, clearance,  
and the handover of cleared land.
All, typically best according United Nations led International Mine Action Standards (IMAS).
Prior any landmine actual removal or destruction from any ground the land must be surveyed, mapped, hazardous areas marked and landmines must be detected and identified.
The aim of demining is to clear land so that civilian life with its civilian routine can return to the otherwise contaminated grounds without the threat of landmines. 
 Especially landmines - historic and newly deployed - do not know friend or foe. 
They do not distinguish between the guilty or the innocent. 
They always cause great suffering.
With the War in Ukraine the mass deployment of landmines has 
upped dangers and challenges to new levels. 
Demining is a humanitarian must. 
Now on an even bigger scale than ever before.  
For more information about landmines please see
the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs and
E-Mine, the UN Mine Action