Ministers bid to stem African tide

Ministers attending an EU-Africa conference in Libya next week (22-23 November) are expected to agree to develop legal migration between the two continents and to crack down on illegal migration.

The list of recommended actions also includes encouraging foreign investment in Africa and tackling unemployment.

The conference, which will focus on migration and development, has been convened in response to an increase in illegal migration from Africa to the EU. Over the summer, thousands of immigrants travelled in fishing boats to Italy, Malta and the Spanish territory of the Canary Islands.

The pressure on the European countries involved and countless deaths at sea have prompted the European Union and the African Union to co-operate in addressing the issue.

Draft recommendations emphasise "encouraging the movement of skilled African labour" to and from the EU and African states, while also developing seasonal temporary migration. Encouraging the mobility and temporary return of the skilled African diaspora is seen as a way of addressing Africa’s brain drain. Ministers are also expected to agree to strengthen efforts to outlaw and punish human trafficking and to establish readmission policies for illegal immigrants.

The recommendations will also include practical measures such as making it easier and cheaper for Africans working in Europe to send money home and information campaigns about the dangers and risks of travelling illegally to Europe.

The EU has been criticised for emphasising ways of keeping immigrants out rather than tackling the root causes of poverty which drive many Africans from their countries. A ministerial conference in Rabat last July tried to address this. Mame Balla Sy, Senegal’s ambassador to the EU, said European countries were at last engaged in tackling the problem. "They are very engaged now, they have to be. They can build walls but the only real thing to do is to fight poverty," he added.

Thousands of young people from Senegal travelled to the Canary Islands over the summer and Spain has since concluded an agreement with the government to allow the repatriation of immigrants in return for €20 million for work programmes.

Sy said that while Europe was doing a lot to address poverty it could do more. "There are thousands of people in Africa with nothing to eat. Europe can feed the whole world three times over. If things were very good you wouldn’t find such people who had nothing to eat."

Ministers attending an EU-Africa conference in Libya next week (22-23 November) are expected to agree to develop legal migration between the two continents and to crack down on illegal migration.