Just
as the killing of Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe by a US dentist - Walter Palmer
sparked global outcry against illegal poaching of endangered animals in Africa
and a Cause for the preservation of such species, the harrowing image of the
dead body of an innocent 3-year old boy - Aylan Kurdi
in a beach in Turkey heightened the debate on immigration and brought the plight
of refugees to the front burner.
The Syrian boy and his family were said to be fleeing
from the war in raging Syria when their jam-packed boat capsized in the
Mediterranean Sea. Many European countries pooh-poohed letting in the Syrian
refugees into their countries until the picture of the dead body of Aylan Kurdi
circulated across the world.
A Migrant Cemetery?
The United Nations refugee agency – UNHCR asserts that the number
of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean to touch Europe had
exceeded 300,000 this year, up from 219,000 in the whole of 2014.
A while ago, ‘’Austrian authorities reported that 71
refugees including a baby girl were found dead in an abandoned freezer truck,
while Libya recovered the bodies of 82 migrants washed ashore after their
overcrowded boat sank on its way to Europe’’. Similarly, ‘’200 bodies were also discovered a kilometer from Zuwara, a
port in western Libya reputed to be one of Libya’s main people-smuggling
hubs’’. The list is almost endless!
In a speech in Ankara, the Turkish President – Mr. Recep Tayyip
Erdogan accused European countries of ‘’turning the Mediterranean Sea – the
cradle of ancient civilization into a migrant cemetery’’.
’’The Refugee Crisis
That Isn't’’
Writing under the banner: ‘’The
Refugee Crisis That Isn't’’, Kenneth Roth
(@kenroth), the executive director of Human Rights Watch contends that ‘’the
so-called "wave of people"
coming to Europe is more like a trickle when considered against the pool (EU
population is roughly 500 million) that must absorb it’’. He goes further to
say that ‘’the influx this year is only 0.068 percent of the EU's population.
Considering the EU's wealth and advanced economy, it is hard to argue that
Europe lacks the means to absorb these newcomers’’.
‘’To put this in perspective, the U.S., with a population of 320
million, has some 11 million undocumented immigrants which amounts to about 3.5
percent of the U.S. population. The EU, by contrast, had between 1.9 and 3.8
million undocumented immigrants in 2008 (the latest available figures), or less
than one percent of its population, according to a study sponsored by
the European Commission. Put another way, nearly 13 percent of the U.S.
population (some 41 million residents) are foreign-born -- twice the
proportion of non-EU foreign-born people living in Europe’’.
Security, cultural concerns
and heightened xenophobia
Granted the current refugee, migration surge will possibly have
security implications and consequences especially if terrorists - Islamic
militants from Syria, Islamic State (ISIS), Libya, and Somalia conceal
themselves in the flow of genuine refugees since most if not all the refugees
lack basic IDs. Another growing concern among some European countries is that
of culture; some fear the influx of foreigners will dent their long established
ways of life. Countries such as Poland, Bulgaria, and Slovakia have voiced a
strong preference for only Christian refugees while far right politicians and
political parties, the likes of Marine Le Pen in France, Geert Wilders in the
Netherlands, Matteo Salvini of Italy, Milos Zeman in the Czech Republic and the
UKIP party in Britain, are crying wolf.
Why People Seek Refuge, Migrate
Migration
whether forced or voluntary, is as old as humanity. There are occasions when
people intentionally leave their abode in search of greener pastures, to change
environment or they are forced to flee their homeland to escape persecution,
torture, genocide, wars, or unwholesome traditional practices such as female
genital mutilation amongst others. Hence article 14 of the UNHCR expressly
states that, ‘’everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries,
asylum from persecution’’.
History
reminds us that starting from the year 1847, the ‘’Irish Potato Famine’’ forced
more than a million Irish to migrate to the United States. Same way Western
powers and imperialists balkanized Africa and the rest of the world to their
own advantage.
The African Economic Migrants
Connection
 |
| African Migrant Hidden in Car Engine |
An
Igbo proverb opines that, ‘’if you see a frog running across the road in the
afternoon, it is either it is pursuing something or something is pursuing it’’. The quest by desperate Africans to travel overseas
(Europe, North America amongst others) in search of greener pastures can be
stronger than the urge to have sex. An upsurge of
do-or-die economic migrants majorly from sub-Saharan African countries such as
Nigeria, Somalia, Ghana, Cameroon and Eritrea amongst others are currently
exploiting the lacuna in Libya and the Turkey-Greece crossing as a ‘Launchpad’
to western Europe – and unfortunately, many of them don’t make it to Europe
alive. Lately, a West African migrant got into
the Spanish territory of Ceuta from Morocco curled up inside a compartment in a
car engine while another was hidden behind the back seat of the Mercedes-300
car. Recently also, a Moroccan
fellow suffocated to death in a suitcase after his brother attempted
to smuggle him to mainland Spain aboard a ferry from Melilla. Though
humans are naturally wired to be naturally curious, adventurous and to quest
for better opportunities but curling inside the engine of a car to slip into
Europe is surely overboard.
The Immigration Double Standard?
Is
it not an irony that rich countries are competing amongst themselves, wooing moneyed
aristocrats, affluent and highly skilled migrants with various visa programs even
direct citizenship to enable such folks migrate to their countries but they
disdain desperate, endangered poor folks from coming to their countries? The
richest man in Britain as at September 2015 is Ukrainian – Mr. Len Blavatnik
with an estimated fortune of about £13.17 billion, followed by Indian brothers
– Sri and Gopi Hinduja. These guys are not a British-born citizens but
immigrants.
Africans Must Look Inwards
As
we say in Nigerian parlance, folks don’t often realize that ‘what they are looking for in Sokoto is
right there in their Shokoto’. This popular saying means what you expend
energy, money travelling to a great distance to look for, is after all just
within your reach. While South Africa took the first position, Nigeria was
recently ranked 3rd in Africa on a list of countries with the highest
number of dollar millionaires. I think Nigeria’s ranking is a very conservative
guesstimate. We needn’t be reminded that the richest man in Africa today –
Aliko Dangote is a Nigerian. It baffles the mind that this same Nigeria where
millions wallow in abject poverty and its youths are desperate to travel to
Europe and America, boasts of a large chunk of dollar millionaires. It is
mind-boggling that the Chinese, Indians, Lebanese are trooping to Nigeria to
tap into the huge investment and business opportunities inherent in Nigeria
while many self-opinionated Nigerians believe they cannot make it unless they
travel to Europe or America.
Negative Consequences of Bad
Immigration Choices
It
is not unusual for a typical uninformed I-must-travel-abroad Nigerian to render
a testimony in church for securing a visa to say, Guyana after been brainwashed
he will waltz into the US from Guyana. Off they go. Several years down the
line, geezer is stuck there and is ashamed to come back to Nigeria. Countless
marriages have been ruined with children growing up not knowing either of their
parents because either of their parents migrated abroad in search of greener
pastures and things didn’t pan out well.
Please
don’t get it twisted, there is no denying the fact that migration or travelling
is a great experience. Been there, done that, this writer is simply of the view
that it is not worth it curling up inside the engine of a car to get to Europe
or for 300 folks to throw caution to the wind, pay people smugglers to traffic
them to Europe in a boat meant for 100 people. Contrary to fantasies of
Eldorado and grandeur depicted in movies, if I had not been there and seen with
my eyes, I wouldn’t believe there are beggars, homeless, poor and miserable
people in Europe. If you are entrenched, have a good job or business in your
home country and your country is not experiencing any conflict, it is not worth
it selling everything you‘ve got to travel to Europe by road or sea and end up
an illegal immigrant. If you are bent on travelling or moving abroad, there are
genuine ways of going about it.
Sequel
to harsh economic realities, most Western countries are tightening the noose
and stymying loopholes in their immigration procedures. Bear in mind that as an
illegal immigrant in the West, you are not entitled to and will not have access
to medical care, education, good jobs etc. If and when the new rules been
proposed by the British Home secretary – Theresa May comes into effect, illegal
immigrants will find it difficult to rent houses.
Remote,
Immediate Causes of the Refugee, Migration Wave
Interestingly
some Western nations whining about unprecedented migration and refugee
challenge are directly or indirectly responsible for this conundrum through
their hostile economic policies, undue self-interested and meddlesomeness in
the internal affairs of other countries. A time-tested Igbo proverb opines that
‘’you inadvertently invite lizards to your house when you fetch firewood-infested
ants to your house’’. Granted late Libyan leader Gaddafi may have been a tyrant
and all that but Libya was more cohesive under him than it is now. The chaos in
Libya and Syria is definitely having a butterfly-effect on Europe. Hell-bent to
oust President Assad of Syria, some Western government’s tacitly and overtly splashed
out arms, cash and trained hardline Islamic militants who they used to fight a
proxy war against the Assad regime. Four years down the line, President Assad
is yet to abdicate. The Syrian crises has evolved while radical Islamic
militants continue to have a free rein, balkanizing swathes of territory out of
Iraq and Syria which they now call – The Islamic State or ISIL. More than 200,
000 Syrians have died as at March 2015 and about four million Syrians have fled
while another 7.6 million are internally displaced as a result of the ongoing
conflict which has been described as ‘’one of the largest refugee exoduses in
recent history. The UN Secretary General - Ban Ki-Moon admits that ‘’the United
nations is failing Syria’’. Make no mistakes; one is not holding brief for
President Assad and his ilks, just trying to highlight some far-reaching
consequences of self-interested policies of Western powers.
It is a shame that oil-rich Arab countries - Qatar, the United
Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain have not come to the aid
of fleeing Syrian refugees rather they prefer bankrolling factions of Islamist
forces in Syria, Yemen.
Recommendations on how to curb the
refugee, migration challenge:
1.
At the risk of reiterating
the obvious, European leaders must not be reminded that under the Geneva
Convention, ‘’EU countries are duty-bound to protect any person owing to a
well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion’’
hence the EU have a legal, moral and humanitarian obligation to assimilate and
offer succor to distressed refugees fleeing from danger.
2.
Building fences or
teargassing refugees as Hungary is currently doing, is not the solution to the
problem. Please take a cue from the large-heartedness of the Germans. Perhaps
the refugees can be redistributed amongst EU countries since ‘’the so-called "wave of people" coming to
Europe is more like a trickle when considered against the pool (EU population
is roughly 500 million) that must absorb it’’
3.
It will help if Western powers are less
meddlesome and seldom impose their divide-and-rule policies on other nations.
4.
African leaders, countries must tackle
corruption and create jobs for its teeming population. On the other hand, African
youths must realize that patriotism beckons on them to contribute their little
quota in advancing their countries. The fore-fathers of these countries we are
running to made sacrifices in making their countries what they are today. For
the desperate economic migrants, it appears many of them were carried away by
false expectations, peer pressure or youthful exuberance. Yes, it is rough in
Africa but we must be resilient!
5.
It is high time something was done about
the very stringent visa controls and complex processes involved in refugee
applications. It
was reported that Canada rejected ‘’a ‘G5 private sponsored refugee
applications’’ for Aylan Kurdi’s dad made by a relative - Teema Kurdi, a
hairdresser in Vancouver who has lived in Canada for more than 20 years.
Written By:
©Don
Okereke
(Security Analyst/Consultant, Writer/Blogger, Ex-Serviceman,
Change Agent)
Email:
donnuait (a) yahoo.com
Twitter:
@DonOkereke
September, 2015
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