Solutions to African migration are in Africa

true
By Sam Akaki

So weary with disasters, tugg’d with fortune, that I would set my life on any chance, to mend, or be rid on it,” wrote William Shakespeare in Macbeth!

You would be forgiven for thinking that the preeminent British poet and dramatist was referring to the millions of unemployed or unemployable African peoples.

Whether they are the Ugandan drug traffickers “Andrew Ham Ngobi  and Omer Ddamulira, who were executed in China in June 2014 over the possession of cocaine worth $2.6m”, (No funds to return Ugandans executed in China, New Vision, July 2, 2014 or whether they are the 5,000 other African men, women and children from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana, Nigeria, Mali and other African countries, who have perished in the Mediterranean Sea over the last 12 months,  they have all been driven by dehumanising poverty  to ‘set their lives on any chance, to mend or be rid on it!’. Why?

Rather than stay at home and wait for a slow and excruciating death from the lack of food, shelter, clean water, sanitation, healthcare and security of body and limb; thousands of African men, women and children are embarking on desperate journeys every day to find a better life in, ironically, the land of our former colonisers, whom we drove out some 60 years ago!

Although some African politicians make a virtue of blaming our former colonial rulers for everything that is going wrong on the continent today, we should give credit where it is due and appreciate the commendable work, which the European Union is doing in response to the unprecedented African migration crisis.

According to the ‘EU Agenda for Migration’, released in May 2015, the EU is taking concerted efforts to prevent further losses of migrants’ lives at sea by releasing additional funding for joint search and rescue operations and providing the safe and legal resettlement of African migrants in Europe.

They are also assisting frontline EU member states to swiftly identify, register and fingerprint arriving migrants and intensifying efforts aimed at identifying and destroying migrant smuggling networks, which made an estimated $100m out of people’s desperation last year.

The actions by individual EU citizen are even more touching. While leading a mass funeral service for 214 African migrants in Molta in April this year, the Bishop of Gozo, Monsignor Mario Grech, said: “We know not their names, their lives; we just know that they were escaping from a desperate situation trying to find freedom and a better life. We call them the unidentified.

Yet we mourn them, we weep their loss, we want to give them our last respects. Why? Because deep inside, irrespective of our creed, culture, nationality, race, we know that they are our fellow human beings.” http://thechurchinmalta.org/en/posts/48674/message-by-hl-msgr-mario-grech,-bishop-of-gozo,-during-the-migrants-inter-faith-funeral-service

In Calais, or the “Jungle” in France, where Ethiopian and Eritrean migrants have built a cardboard but vibrant Orthodox Christian Church, Ms Jasmine O’Hara, a member of the Worldwide Tribe, says “we’re just normal people from Kent who want to help our fellow human beings with their basic needs”.

‘Leeds No Borders’, a groups that support migrants has collected  and send to Calais thousands of camping equipment abandoned by 80,000 people, who attended this year’s summer festival near Leeds.

A consultant physician at Cambridge University Hospital, Dr. Zoe Fritz is mobilising a country-wide effort by individuals offering their spare rooms to accommodate destitute African migrants.

The British are not alone. Ms Maya Conforti of  L’Auberge Des Migrants and  Sandrine Verdelhan of Secours Caholique – Caritas France are working 24/7 because “the living conditions for migrants and the growth of migrants are beyond pitiful”. But even with the best will in the world, the EU will not be able to rescue and accommodate the millions of African migrants who will want to migrate to Europe in the coming months and decades.

According to the 2015 UN World Population Prospects, released in July, Africa’s rapidly growing population is expected to account for more than half, or 4.6 billion of the world’s population of 9.2 billion by 2050, only 35 years away.

“The concentration of population growth in the poorest countries will make it more difficult to eradicate poverty and inequality, combat hunger and malnutrition and expand educational enrolment and health systems; all of which are crucial to the success of the new sustainable development agenda.” http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/

The extra 3.6 billion people in Africa by 2050 will add combustion fuel to the current intra-state and inter-state disputes over the finite basic resources, especially land and water; thus driving even more Africans migrants towards Europe.

The African Union and its member states should take early preventative measures. First, they should recognise that the wealth and peace that are attracting African migrants to Europe did not appear by accident. It was due to sheer hard work, personal and collective sacrifices and, above all, the rule of law, which protects everyone without fear or favour.

They should create an economic and social climate where African will live and thrive at home. They need to actively take steps to bring population to a sustainable level and promote the rule of law, which will protect not only their people, but also foreign investors, who have the means and the capacity to create jobs.

The European Union should play and investment-oriented supporting role. Instead of concentrating on giving aid, which is perpetuating a dependency culture in the continent, they should use their money, experience and technological skills to assist Africa to trade itself out of poverty.

It is also in the EU’s best interest to promote trade in Africa. According to the 2001 Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) report, ‘Our Common Strategic Interests: Africa’s Role in the Post-G8 World’, “many countries, particularly those (like the EU) that have framed their relations with Africa largely in humanitarian terms, will require an uncomfortable shift in public and policy perceptions.

Without this shift, many of Africa’s traditional partners, especially in Europe and North America, will lose global influence and trade advantages to the emerging powers in Asia.” http://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/papers/view/109353

But the EU’s priority in Africa should be investment in hydro, wind, solar and nuclear power generation and distribution to run industries and support schools plus hospitals. Uganda and the rest of African countries are still in darkness, literally; hence the mass migration to the bright lights of Europe.

For example, the outcome of our presidential election next year will either encourage Ugandan youths to stay at home or drive them to take desperate drug-trafficking or migration journeys.

That is why we are saying the only lasting solutions to African migration are in Uganda and across Africa. Is anyone in government or opposition listening?


The writer is the former FDC international envoy to the UK and European Union, also former parliamentary candidate in the UK, now executive director — Africa-European relations