Migration: The African thorn in European flesh.
Tongkeh Fowale
February 27, 2008
The African continent today is a showcase for poverty, misery, disease and all the taints and hallmarks of underdevelopment. Way back in 1983, futurist author Paul Kennedy described Africa´s future as being "extraordinarily gloomy." Paul D. Kaplan on his part concluded that Africa was "at the end of the abyss." This situation of gloom and doom has followed Africa into the 21st Century. Unbridled corruption, state brutality, severe under development, desolation and general frustration are the major traits of the African continent.
Up north, barely 400 miles from Casablanca stands Europe, Africa´s one-time colonizer. This continent unmistakably contrasts with Africa in vibrancy, strength and economic power. Europe is the world´s largest trading bloc. Africa is the world´s poorest trading bloc. This diametrical relationship is explained by history alone. The chapter of this history is called colonialism.
Between Africa and Europe, there is a looming war. This war is either real or imagined. To face this war,. Europe is mobilizing financial resources, soldiers, and building barbed wire fences which are reminiscent of the Cold War era Berlin Blockade. This time, Europe´s opponents are not communists. They are neither terrorists nor fascists nor spies. They are simply armless, defenseless, hungry and desperate African migrants fleeing from poverty, misery, uncertainty and state brutality from their home countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Arguments about the causes of poverty in Africa are as many as the stands in the seas. Proposed solutions are equal to this number. But regrettably, none of these solutions has bailed the continent an inch from its natural position of despair. Some of the most loud-sounding but counter-productive remedies to African poverty have come from celebrated institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and WTO. This failure to alleviate poverty and all its attendant evils in Africa is directly responsible for the atmosphere of frustration among African youths. This is the situation that accounts for the mass movement of Africans northward to Europe in utter frustration, a scenario which Jose Manuel Barroso rightly describes as "Africans throwing themselves into the Atlantic."
Any discussion on Afro-European relations, whether on migration, trade or political relations must be placed within its historical context. "Europe occupies a unique positive vis-à-vis Africa by virtue of its geography and by virtue of its history which has left us a common multifaceted legacy." These were the words of Louis Michel, EU Commissioner for relations with ACP countries. Explaining the historical roots of African misery and frustration, Baroness Valerie Ann Amos who sat in for Gordon Brown at the December 2007 EU-Africa summit did not mince words. "African people have historically been through a great deal in terms of slavery, imperialism, colonialism…." She also pointed at the role of conflict, governance politics tradition and culture as major hindrances to African development.
This is the combination of factors that account for the harsh poverty in African today. Africa represents what Baroness Amos describes as a place "where millions of people are living in object poverty who should not be." This poverty is the single most important reason why millions of Africans embark on the pilgrimage to Europe, braving the heat of the Sahara sands and the cold of the Mediterranean waters. Driven by this survival instinct, it is do or die for many Africans.
The pattern of Afro-European migration is simply northward. Sub Saharan Africa is the sender, North Africa is the transit, and Europe is the target. Mauritania is one of the main transit points for African migrants destined for Europe through boats. This year alone, 3,250 illegal immigrants have been intercepted in Mauritania. Spain and its Canary islands of the West African coast is a dreamland for many illegal who to melt out of Spain into other EU countries. As the situation continues to worsen in Africa the knock on Europe´s door continues to sound louder in the form migration.
In the first half of 2006, some 9000 undocumented migrants arrived at the shores of the Canary Islands. This was more than the number in 2005 all of whom made the perilous journey to Europe in small boats. In autumn 2005, five Africans died, allegedly shot by Moroccan border police as they tried to cross the fence of the Ceuta enclave along the coast. In July 2006, two other Africans died after falling off the six meter fence at the Spanish enclave of Melilla, part of the EU´s external border. The EU is now funding part of Morocco´s border control effort to stem the tide of migration from Sub-Saharan Africa.
It was against this background of a growing army of migrants on Europe´s coastal waters that a conference on migration was summoned in Rabat, Morocco on 10-11 July 2006 between Africa and Europe. This "Europe-African Ministerial Conference in Migration and Development" as it was called ended up with the "Rabat Plan of action" in which the EU adopted new strategies to counter the flow of African migrants.
The Rabbat resolution called for repressive measures, including a comprehensive reinforcement of border control by air, naval and police forces (Africans included). This implied a follow-up of earlier programmes which were launched in the 1990s to exchange information, experience and military resources on border control.
According to Fortress Europe Observatory, at least 8,966 people have died since 1988 along European frontiers. Among them 3,079 were missing in the Mediterranean Sea. 6,495 migrants died on their journey through the Atlantic towards Sprain. In the Sicily Channel, 2,023 people died along the routes from Libya, Egypt and Tunisia to Malta and Italy. Another 1,209 were reported missing and 35 others drowned while sailing from Algeria to Sardinia. At least 3,086 people died including 1,277 who were missing at sea as they traveled along the routes from Mauritania, Morocco and Algeria towards Spain, through the strait of Gibraltar or off the Canary Islands.
Migrants from Sudan, Chad, Niger and Mali make it across the Sahara to Libya and Algeria. On this journey, conservative estimates put the number of dead at 1,079 people since 1996. For all of these African lives lost in the search for a livelihood, Europe promised a yearly $ 3.16 billion to support development its African partner countries. This is what Swedish migration minister Barbro Holmberg called an "historic event."
The refrain about European development aid to Africa is one of those "loud-sounding-nothing" remedies to African poverty. It does not take a professional economist to realize that African economies are predominantly agricultural and that European (and American) policies are increasing suffocating and as asphyxiating the continent. The cry against European and American agricultural subsidies is not a new cry. These subsidies leave African markets flooded with cheap European, American (and now Asian goods). Chicken, tomato paste, onions, fruits and vegetables and other agricultural products from the EU now flood the African market. African farmers left with what Fidel Castro would call "starvation salaries" have little options but to "employ their feet" in this desperate struggle for survival.
This destruction of African economies has the blessings of World Bank, IMF and WTO. In 2000 for example, the World Bank convinced the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union to reduce their import duties for poultry parts from 55 to 20 percent. Overnight, this region became a dumping ground for chicken wings. This put an end to Senegal´s poultry production, 10.000 people lost their jobs and 3.8 billion in annual sales disappeared. The fishing industry in Senegal which provides 15 percent of all jobs is now under threat of closure as the EU has brought its way into Senegalese waters for a price of €12 million a year from 2002 to 2006.
The Cotton business which provides livelihood for 10 million West Africans is now on its knees. The reason is not hard to find. The US gives $ 3 to $ 4 billion dollars a year to about 25,000 cotton producers. This represents 4 times the amount of money the developed world spends on agricultural assistance to the worlds poor, most of who are found in Africa. Elsewhere in the continent, western oil pipes have eaten up all arable land. Pollution of land and water makes agriculture extremely difficult if not impossible. In forest communities, European logging companies are swarming aggressively on African forests displacing entire communities, destroying sources of livelihood and aggravating environmental hazards. Unable to farm on their land, fish in their waters, hunt in their forests there are little options for these impoverished masses
Conflicts resulting from the struggle for oil, diamonds and other resources do not produce the peaceful environment required for food cultivation. This adds up to the atmosphere of corruption, bad leadership, "state-terrorism" and all forms of tyranny and repression which are directly or indirectly sanctioned by the West as they seek to protect their economic interests in Africa at the detriment of the masses. "If the rich nations destroy every chance of development in our countries, then we will just have to develop ourselves in their countries," says Samba Gueye, a frustrated Senegalese farmer. "We exported peanuts and they destroyed that. We exported fish and they caught our fish. Now we will just export people. Mr. Gueye is speaking the mind of every African who has reached the end of his wits.
Hearing the western media talk of human rights, one gets the impression that African migrants who successfully break through "Fortress Europe," enjoy the blessings of liberty and freedom. For many of them, it is just another chapter in this traumatic tale. "Human rights policy and representation of economic interests are two sides of the same coin," said Angela Markel, the German Chancellor at the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon, December 2006. But Louis Michel was honest enough to admit "Afro-pessimism prevails in Europe, not just in the circles of power, but in public opinion too. Africa continues to be regarded as a problem by Europeans", he categorically emphasised.
The same Europe which claims to carry the banner of human rights is the breeding ground for xenophobia, racism and all forms discrimination against Africans. The growing popularity of anti-immigration politicians from Demark to the Netherlands is evidence of this disdain for foreigners on the one hand, and Africans in partticular. The number of African demonstrations, protests and violent expression of anger on the streets of Europe is a sign of their growing frustration. The result is police brutality and mass deportation. Such are the race relations on the streets of Europe, the "birthplace" of human rights.
On the occasion of his visit to UNESCO in December 2007, Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi saw for himself the plight of African migrants in Europe. "We are in a country such as France," he lamented, "and the whole of Europe and America boast to the world about human rights. If the foreigners and African immigrants in these countries are oppressed or plagued by injustice, how can they brag out about human rights?"
The fate of many Africans detained in immigration camps in Southern Europe is becoming worrisome to international humanitarian organizations. The Islands of Melilla and Ceuta are being transformed into fortresses with layers of fences and walls to keep Africans out. Immigration camps in the Canary Islands are overcrowded with immigrants. In the Island of Lampedusa illegal immigrants are imprisoned for months or more than a year. Even in detention centers in North Africa sponsored by European countries, the treatment of African migrants remains deplorable.
For many Africans, the ordeal they encounter on their way to Europe is either similar or equal to the environment of despair back home. Many simply see consider this pilgrimage as a journey of "no retreat, no surrender." This resilience is fuelled by the hope that the very few or lucky ones who can successfully go through this thorny path may rekindle hope to their families back home. And true to this line of thinking, the "remittances" sent back home by African immigrants now constitutes the second most important source of income for families in the South. This money by far exceeds the amount of international aid from donor countries. In 1999 alone for example, the "remittances" to less developed countries amounted to $60 billion dollars.
As Africans exercise their legs for the "northward" journey, the EU is beginning to split over the issue of migration. When Spain woke up one morning to find 1000 Africans in boats lined up on its coastal waters in September 2007, authorities immediately declared this the worst humanitarian crisis after the civil war. The plight of these "wretched of the earth" as Frantz Fanon would call them, forced Spain to open its doors to African immigrants. Spain has agreed to hand over 4000 contracts to young Senegalese migrants thus according them the opportunity to work in Spain by 2008.
The Spanish reaction towards African migrants confirms the thesis that until the gap between Europe and Africa is bridged, until this "hump" of inequality is addressed, until the decaying situation in Africa is arrested, Africans will continue to "make use of their feet" even at gunpoint. It is a historical debt which Europe owes to Africa. Some people call it a moral responsibility. Such debts are either paid in cash or in kind, directly or indirectly, sooner or later. This is what President Gadaffi meant when he spoke about the plight of Africans in very strong terms. "The riches that were taken away must be given back somehow…. And if we don´t face up to that, we´ll have to pay one way or another – through terrorism, emigration or revenge."
President Gadaffi would normally be branded as radical by the West for using such strongly worded language. But what if the message is put in a more subtle tone? What if it comes from the mouth of the current boss of the EU, Jose Manuel Barroso. "We cannot, we will not stop migration. Migration should be a source of prosperity for both the country of origin and the country of destination, not a human tragedy."
Up north, barely 400 miles from Casablanca stands Europe, Africa´s one-time colonizer. This continent unmistakably contrasts with Africa in vibrancy, strength and economic power. Europe is the world´s largest trading bloc. Africa is the world´s poorest trading bloc. This diametrical relationship is explained by history alone. The chapter of this history is called colonialism.
Between Africa and Europe, there is a looming war. This war is either real or imagined. To face this war,. Europe is mobilizing financial resources, soldiers, and building barbed wire fences which are reminiscent of the Cold War era Berlin Blockade. This time, Europe´s opponents are not communists. They are neither terrorists nor fascists nor spies. They are simply armless, defenseless, hungry and desperate African migrants fleeing from poverty, misery, uncertainty and state brutality from their home countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Arguments about the causes of poverty in Africa are as many as the stands in the seas. Proposed solutions are equal to this number. But regrettably, none of these solutions has bailed the continent an inch from its natural position of despair. Some of the most loud-sounding but counter-productive remedies to African poverty have come from celebrated institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and WTO. This failure to alleviate poverty and all its attendant evils in Africa is directly responsible for the atmosphere of frustration among African youths. This is the situation that accounts for the mass movement of Africans northward to Europe in utter frustration, a scenario which Jose Manuel Barroso rightly describes as "Africans throwing themselves into the Atlantic."
Any discussion on Afro-European relations, whether on migration, trade or political relations must be placed within its historical context. "Europe occupies a unique positive vis-à-vis Africa by virtue of its geography and by virtue of its history which has left us a common multifaceted legacy." These were the words of Louis Michel, EU Commissioner for relations with ACP countries. Explaining the historical roots of African misery and frustration, Baroness Valerie Ann Amos who sat in for Gordon Brown at the December 2007 EU-Africa summit did not mince words. "African people have historically been through a great deal in terms of slavery, imperialism, colonialism…." She also pointed at the role of conflict, governance politics tradition and culture as major hindrances to African development.
This is the combination of factors that account for the harsh poverty in African today. Africa represents what Baroness Amos describes as a place "where millions of people are living in object poverty who should not be." This poverty is the single most important reason why millions of Africans embark on the pilgrimage to Europe, braving the heat of the Sahara sands and the cold of the Mediterranean waters. Driven by this survival instinct, it is do or die for many Africans.
The pattern of Afro-European migration is simply northward. Sub Saharan Africa is the sender, North Africa is the transit, and Europe is the target. Mauritania is one of the main transit points for African migrants destined for Europe through boats. This year alone, 3,250 illegal immigrants have been intercepted in Mauritania. Spain and its Canary islands of the West African coast is a dreamland for many illegal who to melt out of Spain into other EU countries. As the situation continues to worsen in Africa the knock on Europe´s door continues to sound louder in the form migration.
In the first half of 2006, some 9000 undocumented migrants arrived at the shores of the Canary Islands. This was more than the number in 2005 all of whom made the perilous journey to Europe in small boats. In autumn 2005, five Africans died, allegedly shot by Moroccan border police as they tried to cross the fence of the Ceuta enclave along the coast. In July 2006, two other Africans died after falling off the six meter fence at the Spanish enclave of Melilla, part of the EU´s external border. The EU is now funding part of Morocco´s border control effort to stem the tide of migration from Sub-Saharan Africa.
It was against this background of a growing army of migrants on Europe´s coastal waters that a conference on migration was summoned in Rabat, Morocco on 10-11 July 2006 between Africa and Europe. This "Europe-African Ministerial Conference in Migration and Development" as it was called ended up with the "Rabat Plan of action" in which the EU adopted new strategies to counter the flow of African migrants.
The Rabbat resolution called for repressive measures, including a comprehensive reinforcement of border control by air, naval and police forces (Africans included). This implied a follow-up of earlier programmes which were launched in the 1990s to exchange information, experience and military resources on border control.
According to Fortress Europe Observatory, at least 8,966 people have died since 1988 along European frontiers. Among them 3,079 were missing in the Mediterranean Sea. 6,495 migrants died on their journey through the Atlantic towards Sprain. In the Sicily Channel, 2,023 people died along the routes from Libya, Egypt and Tunisia to Malta and Italy. Another 1,209 were reported missing and 35 others drowned while sailing from Algeria to Sardinia. At least 3,086 people died including 1,277 who were missing at sea as they traveled along the routes from Mauritania, Morocco and Algeria towards Spain, through the strait of Gibraltar or off the Canary Islands.
Migrants from Sudan, Chad, Niger and Mali make it across the Sahara to Libya and Algeria. On this journey, conservative estimates put the number of dead at 1,079 people since 1996. For all of these African lives lost in the search for a livelihood, Europe promised a yearly $ 3.16 billion to support development its African partner countries. This is what Swedish migration minister Barbro Holmberg called an "historic event."
The refrain about European development aid to Africa is one of those "loud-sounding-nothing" remedies to African poverty. It does not take a professional economist to realize that African economies are predominantly agricultural and that European (and American) policies are increasing suffocating and as asphyxiating the continent. The cry against European and American agricultural subsidies is not a new cry. These subsidies leave African markets flooded with cheap European, American (and now Asian goods). Chicken, tomato paste, onions, fruits and vegetables and other agricultural products from the EU now flood the African market. African farmers left with what Fidel Castro would call "starvation salaries" have little options but to "employ their feet" in this desperate struggle for survival.
This destruction of African economies has the blessings of World Bank, IMF and WTO. In 2000 for example, the World Bank convinced the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union to reduce their import duties for poultry parts from 55 to 20 percent. Overnight, this region became a dumping ground for chicken wings. This put an end to Senegal´s poultry production, 10.000 people lost their jobs and 3.8 billion in annual sales disappeared. The fishing industry in Senegal which provides 15 percent of all jobs is now under threat of closure as the EU has brought its way into Senegalese waters for a price of €12 million a year from 2002 to 2006.
The Cotton business which provides livelihood for 10 million West Africans is now on its knees. The reason is not hard to find. The US gives $ 3 to $ 4 billion dollars a year to about 25,000 cotton producers. This represents 4 times the amount of money the developed world spends on agricultural assistance to the worlds poor, most of who are found in Africa. Elsewhere in the continent, western oil pipes have eaten up all arable land. Pollution of land and water makes agriculture extremely difficult if not impossible. In forest communities, European logging companies are swarming aggressively on African forests displacing entire communities, destroying sources of livelihood and aggravating environmental hazards. Unable to farm on their land, fish in their waters, hunt in their forests there are little options for these impoverished masses
Conflicts resulting from the struggle for oil, diamonds and other resources do not produce the peaceful environment required for food cultivation. This adds up to the atmosphere of corruption, bad leadership, "state-terrorism" and all forms of tyranny and repression which are directly or indirectly sanctioned by the West as they seek to protect their economic interests in Africa at the detriment of the masses. "If the rich nations destroy every chance of development in our countries, then we will just have to develop ourselves in their countries," says Samba Gueye, a frustrated Senegalese farmer. "We exported peanuts and they destroyed that. We exported fish and they caught our fish. Now we will just export people. Mr. Gueye is speaking the mind of every African who has reached the end of his wits.
Hearing the western media talk of human rights, one gets the impression that African migrants who successfully break through "Fortress Europe," enjoy the blessings of liberty and freedom. For many of them, it is just another chapter in this traumatic tale. "Human rights policy and representation of economic interests are two sides of the same coin," said Angela Markel, the German Chancellor at the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon, December 2006. But Louis Michel was honest enough to admit "Afro-pessimism prevails in Europe, not just in the circles of power, but in public opinion too. Africa continues to be regarded as a problem by Europeans", he categorically emphasised.
The same Europe which claims to carry the banner of human rights is the breeding ground for xenophobia, racism and all forms discrimination against Africans. The growing popularity of anti-immigration politicians from Demark to the Netherlands is evidence of this disdain for foreigners on the one hand, and Africans in partticular. The number of African demonstrations, protests and violent expression of anger on the streets of Europe is a sign of their growing frustration. The result is police brutality and mass deportation. Such are the race relations on the streets of Europe, the "birthplace" of human rights.
On the occasion of his visit to UNESCO in December 2007, Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi saw for himself the plight of African migrants in Europe. "We are in a country such as France," he lamented, "and the whole of Europe and America boast to the world about human rights. If the foreigners and African immigrants in these countries are oppressed or plagued by injustice, how can they brag out about human rights?"
The fate of many Africans detained in immigration camps in Southern Europe is becoming worrisome to international humanitarian organizations. The Islands of Melilla and Ceuta are being transformed into fortresses with layers of fences and walls to keep Africans out. Immigration camps in the Canary Islands are overcrowded with immigrants. In the Island of Lampedusa illegal immigrants are imprisoned for months or more than a year. Even in detention centers in North Africa sponsored by European countries, the treatment of African migrants remains deplorable.
For many Africans, the ordeal they encounter on their way to Europe is either similar or equal to the environment of despair back home. Many simply see consider this pilgrimage as a journey of "no retreat, no surrender." This resilience is fuelled by the hope that the very few or lucky ones who can successfully go through this thorny path may rekindle hope to their families back home. And true to this line of thinking, the "remittances" sent back home by African immigrants now constitutes the second most important source of income for families in the South. This money by far exceeds the amount of international aid from donor countries. In 1999 alone for example, the "remittances" to less developed countries amounted to $60 billion dollars.
As Africans exercise their legs for the "northward" journey, the EU is beginning to split over the issue of migration. When Spain woke up one morning to find 1000 Africans in boats lined up on its coastal waters in September 2007, authorities immediately declared this the worst humanitarian crisis after the civil war. The plight of these "wretched of the earth" as Frantz Fanon would call them, forced Spain to open its doors to African immigrants. Spain has agreed to hand over 4000 contracts to young Senegalese migrants thus according them the opportunity to work in Spain by 2008.
The Spanish reaction towards African migrants confirms the thesis that until the gap between Europe and Africa is bridged, until this "hump" of inequality is addressed, until the decaying situation in Africa is arrested, Africans will continue to "make use of their feet" even at gunpoint. It is a historical debt which Europe owes to Africa. Some people call it a moral responsibility. Such debts are either paid in cash or in kind, directly or indirectly, sooner or later. This is what President Gadaffi meant when he spoke about the plight of Africans in very strong terms. "The riches that were taken away must be given back somehow…. And if we don´t face up to that, we´ll have to pay one way or another – through terrorism, emigration or revenge."
President Gadaffi would normally be branded as radical by the West for using such strongly worded language. But what if the message is put in a more subtle tone? What if it comes from the mouth of the current boss of the EU, Jose Manuel Barroso. "We cannot, we will not stop migration. Migration should be a source of prosperity for both the country of origin and the country of destination, not a human tragedy."