Following the expose by Cable News Network (CNN) on the dehumanising sale of sub-Saharan African emigrants as slaves in Libya, African governments and peoples have hypocritically risen in condemnation of the abominable practice that has been taking place for a very long time but which we have all chosen to ignore.
Beginning from the 1990s, many Africans, unable to get visas to Europe or the United States, and to escape excruciating poverty and brutal regimes at home, resort to making the tortuous journey to Europe through the Sahara where many perish either in the desert or in the Mediterranean sea while attempting to cross the narrow straits to Europe or rickety boats.
Even with the return to democracy in most African countries, economic situations are yet to improve. The combined factors of corruption, malgovernance and deteriorating economic conditions have been leading many African youth to vote with their feet in search of hope and a better live in Europe.
Interestingly, despite the humanitarian crises and the media frenzy the huge wave of illegal migration has created in the European Union, there has not been any response or comment from any African country, the African Union or the African Human Rights Commission. At the height of the crisis in 2015, African Heads of State and Government gathered for the African Union (AU) 25th Summit in South Africa and no mention was made of migrants’ plight.
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This is after the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported a week to the summit that over 1,750 died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy within four days. A recent figure from the body says more than 22, 500 migrants have died since 2014.
We think sub-Saharan African leaders should be ashamed that their citizens have completely lost hope in their countries and are willing to undertake the perilous journey through the Sahara to reach Europe. And of course, a sizeable percentage of those illegal migrants are from Nigeria – mainly Edo, Delta, and Rivers state where sophisticated cartels help to organise these trips.
The imprisonment and enslavement of illegal sub-Saharan African emigrants in North Africa has been going on for years without anyone saying or doing anything about it. It was chaos in Libya and the absence of an effective government that led to the escalation of the practice. More shamefully, despite the ordeals most Nigerian illegal emigrants suffered in Libya, a survey among many of the returnees revealed many of them are still willing to try their luck again by embarking on the perilous journey.
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This confirms Jude Wanniski’s – the popular journalist, political economist and conservative commentator – thesis in his book “The Way the World Works” that “emigration is a sure sign of relative political failure”. We believe, like Tony Elumelu that the ultimate solution to Africans migrating is not in Europe opening its borders to them but in “sustained and inclusive economic growth throughout the continent.” For him “better opportunities for economic advancement will not only improve the outlook of Africans, but will also deflate a primary motivation behind the thousands of them attempting or contemplating a dangerous and illegal trek to Europe.”
It is past time for condemnation and political platitudes. The government, entrepreneurs and businesses must rise up to the occasion and work together to solve the unemployment crisis and make Africa an engine of growth.
