Migrations: "Dating from the Top"

Throughout the Sahel, the number of candidates for emigration continues to grow, and dramas multiply under the almost powerless gaze of the world and particularly those who lead us. While almost all countries in the world adhere to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the existence of a “migrant market” and the increasingly recurrent practice of “throwing” on the edge of the desert, without water or food, desperate human beings constitute the pinnacle of horror and the denial of man.

Some figures and current facts about this scandal of our century and which challenges each of us and even more strongly each of our leaders:

– Nearly 290 children died in the first half of 2023 trying to cross the Mediterranean, twice as many as in 2022 and nearly 12,000 children made the crossing.

– Nearly 120,000 people have disembarked since the beginning of 2023 in Europe via the Mediterranean, or about 24 people every hour from January to July 2023.

– Nearly 1,800 people have died or gone missing since January 2023.

– For candidates to migrate from the Sahel, the Maghreb countries of Morocco, Tunisia and Libya are becoming increasingly risky and increasingly deadly obstacles, as evidenced by the tragedies that have occurred in recent years ( 23 migrants killed in Morocco in 2022, migrant women regularly raped in Libya and some systematically tortured; in June 2023, more than 24 migrants lost their lives in the desert in Tunisia and hundreds of illegal migrants were expelled and then abandoned in the desert …).

– Finally, the new slave markets, which we believe to be buried in the darkness of the past, continue to exist in this 21st century world.

Since 2018, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration has been signed by 162 countries around the world. This includes strong elements of cooperation to prevent deaths during migration and to save lives at sea and elsewhere, to strengthen the fight against migrant smuggling and human trafficking and, finally, to fight against irregular migration. This is progress even if the pact is not legally binding. Despite this human tragedy, the voices of African regional and continental organizations are weak and those of the countries are even weaker.

Are we therefore doomed to be eternal victims throughout the world? Without a doubt, these migrants are among those whose voice carries the least in the world despite unprecedented media coverage in recent years. The deafening silence of the leaders is disturbed only by a few outrages from NGOs, media alerts and well-documented reports. We should hardly be surprised then at the strong indifference of peoples with regard to the concepts and theories on human rights and democracy which sound hollow in this way. This requires agreeing strong measures at the level of our countries, regional and sub-regional organizations and transit and “host” countries.

At the national level, we could start with preventive measures through a more vigorous, continuous communication and information campaign based on real and documented examples aimed at potential candidates for migration. The means: those among the most used and most accessible on the risks of migration. It is thus necessary to raise awareness of the real dangers on the migration routes, of the disappointment experienced once in the host countries, of the exploitation of the hope of youth by the smugglers, these sellers of death.

The second measure should aim to significantly strengthen the services in charge of the fight against this type of migration as well as the legal mechanism to crack down even more severely against the intermediaries who feed these paths of despair.

The third measure, by far the most difficult and on which it is almost forbidden to ignore, is to establish these areas of emigration as priority areas for development around major structuring projects capable of changing the situation on the ground. . The prerequisite is of course political stability. It will also be a question of increasing the efforts of the countries in budgetary terms to better orient and frame the many development projects proposed by the Western countries and whose ultimate objective is to curb the emigration of African youth.

The fourth measure is diplomatic. It consists first of all in developing, in connection with the transit countries, essentially the Maghreb countries, a partnership on the question of migration. Consideration should be given to mutual concerns and modalities of collaboration, including in cases where young Africans are caught in the nets of their security services.

The other part of this diplomatic offensive would aim to make the global pact on migration legally binding through a joint lobbying effort by the Sahelian countries, which would make their voices heard more clearly within regional and African organizations so that the issue of migration and tragedies that it carries are at the heart of their concerns.

Finally, we should get out of the one-on-one transit country/host country and cooperation should henceforth be trilateral instead of bilateral. As we say in our country (Mali), it’s time to stop shaving a person’s head in their absence. This change of direction would be more the responsibility of ECOWAS or the African Union than that of individual countries.

The ostrich policy currently being practiced by all parties must end. A buried problem does not disappear, it grows and its resolution becomes more difficult as time goes by.

The Sahel, which struggles to control its routes and this murderous migratory dynamic, picks up its dead; the Maghreb, which is reaping the support of European partners, is trading off its geographical and historical ties with the countries south of the Sahara, and Europe, considering these human tragedies as the collateral damage of a strategy to stop irregular migration, finds itself in the situation of a group which finally accepts the adage that the end justifies the means.

Let us understand: the fate that the Covid-19 epidemic has allowed us to verify is clearly identifiable: we will win together or perish together. What’s worse is that we won’t be able to say if this misfortune persists that “we didn’t know”. Isn’t the degree of civilization of a people measured by the way it treats the weakest? After many centuries of history, let us learn the right lessons to rise to the height of our hope for civilization.

* Former Prime Minister of Mali (2014-2015)