Latest
reports have indicated that “more than 4,650 migrants were saved on Tuesday (4
October 2016) off the Libyan coast and 28 bodies recovered, bringing the total number of people rescued in the last 48 hours to nearly 11,000”,
according to Italy’s coast guard.
This
is quite alarming and a cause for concern. It seems no amount of advice,
projects or sensitization could stop our African youths from braving the
dangerous desert terrain and the Mediterranean to reach Europe.
Over
the years, tens of thousands of our youths in Africa have been risking their
dear lives to enter Europe via the back-way. While some are eventually entering
Europe to reside in countries like Spain, Italy, Greece, Germany and other
places, under harrowing and dehumanizing conditions, a lot of them are dying en
route to Europe in the desert of North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea.
Countless
number of strategies, sensitization campaigns, international and national
projects and huge amounts of financial resources have been put in place or are
being rolled out to curb the illegal migration menace of our youths to European
countries.
It
seems all these resources being invested in the fight to curtail the illegal or
back-way travel to Europe through the diabolic sea route is like throwing water
on sand, with no fruitful results, as the youths have continued in desperate
fervor to penetrate Europe through the back-way.
Commenting
on the back-way syndrome, Spain’s current Chargé d’Affaires to The Gambia said
the general trend of going to Europe illegally, which involves youths from The
Gambia and neighbouring countries, is a serious cause for concern to which a
solution of concerted efforts is needed.
Her
concern is also substantiated by the latest report of illegal immigration put out
by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), on arrivals of migrants
to Italy in the first weeks of 2016, as arrivals “have come mainly from
sub-Saharan Africa, especially Nigeria and The Gambia”.
“Nigerians
and Gambians accounted for around one third of the 5,273 migrants who arrived
in Italy during January 2016,” the report stated.
It
added that The Gambia is one the countries in Africa where many immigrants are
leaving for Europe.
From
January to March 2015, about 51 immigrants left The Gambia for Italy; and in
the same period between January and March 2016 about 676 people travelled
through the back-way to Italy from The Gambia, the report stated.
Whilst
some immigrants are making it to Europe, others are losing their lives in
droves on the way to the continent with ‘milk and honey’.
The
IOM report stated that an estimated figure of 444 immigrants have so far lost
their lives this year – in less than three months!
But
why has this trend continued unabated?
Much
of the problems and miserable situations we are faced with today in Africa are
perpetuated by abject poverty in African countries and bad governance such as
misplaced and wrong economic policies, corruption and embezzlement of state
resources, human rights violations, and power struggles and conflicts.
“How
emigration is actually lived - well, this depends on many factors: education,
economic station, language, where one lands, and what support network is in
place at the site of arrival.”
Daniel
Alarcon
