https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/eu-launches-2-billion-plan-to-keep-africans-from-migrating/2015/12/16/03ad6038-a372-11e5-8318-bd8caed8c588_story.html
E.U. launches $2 billion plan to keep Africans from migrating
By Kevin Sieff December 16 at 5:26 PM
NAIROBI — The European Union on Wednesday announced the start of a $2
billion initiative to curb illegal migration from Africa, an ambitious
program that aims to tackle the root causes of a historic flight of
Africans to Europe.
The first $325 million in projects introduced Wednesday include
efforts to increase employment in the migrants’ home countries and to
tackle human trafficking in places such as Ethiopia and Somalia.
Much of Europe’s attention has been focused on the nearly 800,000
Syrian, Iraqi and other asylum-seekers who have entered Europe this
year via Greece. But the number of people from sub-Saharan Africa
crossing the Mediterranean has jumped, too: About 130,000 made the
journey in 2015, compared with about 70,000 last year, according to
the International Organization for Migration. They were driven from
their homes by poverty and conflict, and attracted by the
opportunities to reach Italy from nearby Libya, whose Mediterranean
coast has been virtually unpatrolled since the 2011 overthrow of
Moammar Gaddafi’s government.
[European Union predicts 3 million more migrants by end of next year]
The $2 billion E.U. Emergency Trust Fund for Africa was created last
month to “address migration, mobility and forced displacement through
concrete action,” said the E.U.’s commissioner for international
cooperation and development, Neven Mimica.
Analysts were skeptical about whether the plan would have a major
effect, given the range of reasons that so many Africans embark on the
risky journey north. In Eritrea, one of the continent’s top sources of
refugees, residents flee a repressive government and forced military
service that can last for decades. In Somalia, they are escaping the
terrorist group Al-Shabab and brutal fighting between clans. In much
of the continent, they are leaving countries with limited job
opportunities and seemingly endless poverty.
“If you’re looking at changing the way Africa’s economies work, [$2
billion] isn’t going to go very far,” said Tuesday Reitano, head of
the secretariat of the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against
Transnational Organized Crime.
Few details of the new projects were available Wednesday. But
according to an E.U. statement, they include a plan to develop
employment opportunities in regions of Ethiopia from which migrants
come; an effort to help Somali refugees return to parts of their
country that are stable; and an initiative to combat migrant smuggling
in the Horn of Africa.
Many African governments have done little to curb migration to Europe,
in part because migrant remittances can comprise a significant portion
of their countries’ GDP. Last year, workers from sub-Saharan Africa
sent home more than $11.2 billion from Europe, according to the World
Bank.
In recent months, the E.U. has debated attacking smugglers’ ships and
conducting intelligence-led operations in places such as Niger, on the
migrant trail to Libya, but such plans have rarely been enacted.
Efforts to improve law enforcement in key cities along that trail have
also had limited success. In Agadez, Niger, for example, a Post
reporter found this summer that a military vehicle was leading a
convoy of smugglers and migrants into the Sahara once a week.
[A smuggler’s haven in the Sahara]
Many analysts say that the surge in migrants from Africa reflects the
continent’s most entrenched problems — including civil wars and
economies that have not created enough jobs for a rapidly growing
population.
“Internal African policies tend to push people out,” said Mohamed
Yahya, the Africa regional program coordinator for the United Nations
Development Program. “Will the trust fund end this? I don’t think so.”
Under the E.U. plan, 23 African countries deemed the “most fragile and
those most affected by migration” will be eligible for the funds,
which would be disbursed through 2020. Eritrea was included on the
list, despite calls from activists to withhold funding because of its
poor human-rights record.
“The fast-tracked approval of today’s new projects proves that this is
not business as usual,” Mimica said.
There was no sign that the E.U. is willing to dramatically expand the
number of work visas it offers to sub-Saharan Africans — something
sought by many officials on the continent who see their compatriots
taking risky, expensive journeys because the legal route is nearly
inaccessible. Nearly 3,000 people have died crossing from Libya to
Europe this year, and most of them are thought to be sub-Saharan
Africans.
“The legal channels right now are extremely restrictive,” Yahya said.
“For an African to get a visa to go to Europe is the most humiliating
process.”
The E.U. has said it will expand the number of university scholarships
it offers to sub-Saharan Africans, but that there would likely be a
limited increase in the total number of visas.
Other officials in Africa called the trust fund a welcome start, but
highlighted just how massive the need is in places where asylum
seekers are making the choice to leave for Europe or elsewhere.
“To meet only the most basic needs of displaced persons in North
Nigeria would require $1 per person per day — a staggering $2 million
in total per day,” wrote Bukola Saraki, president of the Nigerian
Senate, in the Financial Times this month. He added that the cost of
rebuilding northwestern Borno state, which has been ravaged by radical
Islamist group Boko Haram, has been put at $1 billion.
Read more:
A Libyan militia confronts the world’s migrant crisis
Tiny Gambia has a big export: Migrants desperate to reach Europe
At first stop on Europe’s refugee trail, a 21st-century Ellis Island is born
Kevin Sieff has been The Post’s bureau chief in Nairobi since 2014. He
served previously as the bureau chief in Kabul and had covered the
U.S. -Mexico border.
Received on Wed Dec 16 2015 - 23:01:05 EST