Migrants crisis clouds Africa's rebirth dream

Apart from the heartrending tales of internal displacement and massive humanitarian crises sparked by the perennial violence that has become routine in Africa’s most notorious hotspots, few media reports are as revolting as those focusing on the plight of African asylum seekers.

Often perishing in horrendous circumstances, the hapless hordes of African emigrants seeking one-way tickets out of the troubled continent also have to contend with discrimination, persecution and wanton human rights abuses.

Increasingly, though, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the African refugee catastrophe has been overshadowed by the Syrian crisis. Consequently, African asylum seekers’ tales of woe have in recent times become so commonplace that they receive minimal media attention, although there are events that simply cannot be ignored.

Among them were the glaring immigration nightmares when two shipwrecks in October last year saw over 400 refugees drown near the Italian island of Lampedusa as they tried to reach Europe. Describing the chilling occurrence as an “immigration emergency”, Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta said such tragedies had turned the Mediterranean into a “sea of death.”

Still, the survivors of the October 3 shipwreck were forced to sleep in unsanitary conditions at Lampedusa’s overcrowded centre, where 800 migrants were reportedly fighting over 250 beds. Elsewhere, some of the 4,000 migrants at the Mineo centre in Sicily, dubbed “Solidarity Village”, rioted during the same month. Enraged, they burned mattresses, threw rocks at passing cars and clashed with police while protesting over the snail’s-pace processing of asylum requests.

Gracefully, the predicament of African asylum seekers trying to migrate to Europe somehow made its way into the agenda of last week’s fourth European Union-Africa summit in Brussels.

Significantly, the milestone gathering also focused on human rights issues. More importantly, the summit’s final communiqué noted that European and African leaders were committed to “fight all forms of discrimination, racism and xenophobia, and all acts of intolerance on both continents.”

And while it was not openly pointed out that many of Africa’s problems — including those of migrants — are intrinsically linked to Western colonial and neo-colonial attitudes and policies in Africa, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon underscored the need to respect the human rights of Africans migrating to Europe.

He also called for “a new sustainable and inclusive agenda for the years ahead between the two blocs.”

INVESTMENT IN YOUNG PEOPLE

Particularly poignant was AU Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s call for increased investment in young people in Africa to stem the flow of illegal migrations to Europe.

Decrying the plight of African asylum seekers who often perish during attempts to seek greener pastures in Europe and elsewhere, Dlamini-Zuma said the continent has the capacity to offer a lifeline to such people.

“Many young people die in the desert or across the Mediterranean because we have not invested in them”, she reportedly said.

“If we concentrate on skilling up our people, they will not have to come (to Europe).” Instead, she said, more skilled people would remain in Africa and drive development there.

Such hopes notwithstanding, Africa, according to UNHCR, is the second largest producer of displaced people and refugees in the world. But apart from the continent’s huge numbers of internally displaced people, as well as tragedies like the recent boat accident in DR-Congo, the skyrocketing statistics of illegal African immigrants in Europe are astonishing.

That many attempts to emigrate often result in painful death from such mishaps as drowning or succumbing to the vagaries of the weather as they attempt to cross deserts is a tragedy of modern times.

Ironically, though, there are numerous stories of those whose attempts at emigration appear to have initially succeeded, only to have dire repercussions later.

That has been the case with African refugees in Israel who have in recent years, despite massive protests, been declared unwanted immigrants and peremptorily thrown out.