Migrants at sea
As displacing conflicts and dire socio-economic conditions continue to drive mass migration in the Sahel region especially, average citizens are risking it all through the wilderness to get to Europe. But beyond criminalising desperate migration, there is a need for concerted efforts to discourage more citizens still preparing for the ‘journey of no return’, Ngozi Egenuka reports.
There is news on illegal migration on a daily basis. The reports range from overcrowded boats capsizing or that the migrants successfully reached their destinations and kept the host nations perplexed on how to handle the sudden influx.
Globally, the number of people displaced by conflict has reached 110 million. There seems to be an increase in the efforts of people, especially from underdeveloped nations to migrate at whatever cost. This is owing to political instability and global economic trends that have increased poverty in already struggling economies.
These have led many to take illegal routes, especially via seas and land borders, traveling through ill-equipped boats that are often overcrowded in unfavourable terrain and being exposed to exploitation and trafficking all in the bid to get a better life.
Unfortunately, western countries have continued to treat the act as a crime, ignoring the reality, which is that migration is a symptom of a lack of opportunities in developing and underdeveloped nations, as well as the humongous resources needed to follow the legal route to “japa”.
These migrants make use of the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and pacific sea routes, Mexico-United States border, and the Darien Gap majorly.
In the first six months of 2023, more than 200,000 people crossed the Darien Gap, a jungle that lies between Colombia and Panama; more than 60 migrants died in the attempt. Most people going through this route are from Venezuela and Haiti.
Mexico-United States border, according to a recent report from the United Nations migration agency, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), has been declared the world’s most dangerous land route for migrants in 2022, with nearly 700 dying or going missing.
On the sea, most of these illegal migrants make use of unseaworthy, unstable iron boats or overcrowded boats, which has resulted in the deaths of many.
The Mediterranean has three major paths. The western Mediterranean route from West Africa through Morocco to Spain; the central route from East or West Africa via Libya or Tunisia to Italy; and the eastern Mediterranean route from Asia, the Middle East, but occasionally also from East Africa via Turkey to Greece.
To America, migrants use the Pacific Route to Agua Prieta, Nogales, San Luis Río Colorado, Mexicali, and Tijuana.
The Atlantic route is from Western Africa through the Canary Islands. Migrants depart mainly from Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, and The Gambia and embark on dangerous journeys along the West African coast to reach the Canary Islands.
In 2020, nearly 41 million people emigrated from Africa. The number increased significantly compared to 2000 when it amounted to around 22 million. In 2020, emigration out of Africa originated especially from Eastern and Northern Africa.
Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, reports that Africa accounts for only 14 percent of the global migrant population, compared to 41 percent from Asia and 24 percent from Europe.
Italy in particular has seen a significant increase in the number of migrants with a record of more than 60,000 so far this year, compared with fewer than 27,000 at this point in 2022.
Africanews reported that nearly 8000 migrants, a number higher than the indigenous population arrived in Lampedusa, Italy within three days from September 12, 2023.
IOM estimates that the total arrivals of migrants by sea to Mediterranean Europe are more than 82,000 this year, compared to fewer than 49,000 by this time last year. But a report in the Dutch Newspaper, NRC, says 225,000 migrants have illegally entered Europe from Tunisia alone from January to August.
In a bid to travel at all costs to these supposedly ideal societies, a lot of these migrants have lost their lives in the process.
Libya, for example, remains a very dangerous country for migrants, with ongoing reports of murder, torture, rape, persecution, and enslavement of migrants by traffickers, militias, and even some state authorities.
According to IOM data, at least 1,200 Nigerians have died while trying to migrate through the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea in 2023 alone.
There are numerous reports this year already on boat capsizing. For instance, at least 951 people, including 49 children, have died while trying to reach Spain by sea in the first six months of 2023, according to a monitoring group, Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders).
The people lost at sea hailed from 14 countries: Algeria, Cameroon, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Morocco, The Gambia, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Syria.
On average, five people lost their lives every day in the first half of this year along four different routes: the Canary Islands route, the Alboran Sea route, the Algerian route, and the Strait of Gibraltar route.
Caminando Fronteras, which compiled its findings from official sources like refugee communities and rescue organisations, said 19 boats went missing with all the people on board between January and June.
Another reported case occurred in June, where a small boat carrying up to 60 migrants and refugees en route to the Canary Islands capsized with at least 35 people including a child feared dead.
Also in June, an estimated 596 were reported dead, after a wreck from a fishing trawler that set off from Libya for Italy that had about 750 people crammed together. 100 children were said to have been onboard the boat.
IOM data indicated that at least 1,999 migrants died between January 1 and June 26 of this year, mostly from drowning. In the same period last year, 1,358 died. These tallies include those who died in the three major routes across the Mediterranean, as well as at the Atlantic route from West Africa.
IOM documented 441 migrant deaths in the Central Mediterranean in the first three months of this year. While the International Rescue Committee (IRC) reports that at least 1,039 people were known to be missing from Central Mediterranean crossings this year, the real number of deaths and missing persons is likely to be far higher as many wrecks are not recorded.
The first quarter of 2023 was the deadliest for migrants crossing the Mediterranean since 2017, with hundreds of lives lost trying to reach Europe, the UN said recently.
Africa has documented more than 9,000 migration-related deaths since 2014. More than 25,000 have also disappeared crossing the waters between Africa and Europe.
With these deaths reported daily, people still attempt such routes due to rising food insecurity, unemployment, economic instability, and the impact of climate change, violence, conflict, or persecution.
Immigration remains a touchy subject in America, as debates on the economy, security and humanitarian concerns have been ongoing for decades, but no agreement on comprehensive reforms has been made.
According to European Union foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, Europe’s political, economic and security interests are at stake owing to illegal migration.
Reacting, the Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Eghosa Osaghae, stressed that migration should not be classified as an African or Nigerian thing, saying, “Migration is a part of our development as humans. People are always on the move and in search of better climes and a better life.”
He, however, condemned what he called deliberate migration, especially the incessant migration of professionals, which has led to resourceful hands leaving the country, saying it has an effect on the economic development of the nation.
He stated that many professionals do not migrate for economic reasons and urged relevant policy implementers to begin a reform that would create a more conducive working environment, improve the performance of the health sector, and establish sectors to enable professionals to put their expertise to good use.
While making his argument, he laid emphasis on the push-pull factor for migration, raising the issue of relative economic disadvantage.
Osaghae, implored Nigerians, and the diaspora to uphold patriotism and nationalism to limit the issues of migration by lending a hand to the government through social responsibility.
For Associate Professor, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Dr. Joshua Bolarinwa, the longing for a better life has pushed many young Africans, especially Nigerians to resort to damning alternatives in pursuit of greener pastures.
The impact of the high rate of illegal migration has the same implication on the individuals who undertake such precarious measures and the country’s economy.
Bolarinwa stated that illegal migrants were believed to be non-professionals, artisans, and people with less or no form of formal education, arguing that the narrative has changed, and it has led to the upgrade of the common effect of migration from brain drain to economic drain.
He said: “It used to be called brain drain, but now, it is economically draining. Each day the young people, the bedrock, and engine room of the economy leave the country.”
Lamenting over the debilitating effect of migration in the economy, he highlighted the impact of migration in the health sector, insisting that the population of medical personnel has continued to dwindle.
According to him, Nigeria has lost over 1000 medical personnel to migration, and this is a statistically proven fact.
He asserted that the high rate of migration in the country affects the implementation of government policies geared toward improving lives and widening the gates of inclusion in national development.
“The issue of migration has not allowed the government to plan properly because there are no young people to execute those plans for economic growth and development,” he argued.
Bolarinwa faulted the issue of illegal migration on the assumptions that percolate immigration services, explaining that the assumptions vary from the lack of faith in the system to finances and the unbecoming assumption of general rejection.
He said: “Many people believe that visa application to any country legally is often declined. Others are occupied with the belief that they will be rejected, without making an attempt. Some others believe that visa application is expensive and would seek other alternatives.”
Listing the dangers illegal migrants are exposed to as death, rape, prostitution, exposure to wildlife and drug cartels, starvation, and drought, he noted that desperation is a key driver in the illegal migration business, which makes individuals ignore dire consequences that await them.
The Guardian
