Experts from Europe and Africa on Tuesday drew up a joint plan to fight illegal migration which will combine tougher prevention measures with more aid to persuade young Africans to stay in their homelands.
Harrowing images of parched, exhausted young Africans washing ashore in boats on Spain's Canary Islands by the thousands this year has given added urgency to moves to improve international cooperation to combat clandestine emigration.
Hundreds are believed to die in the perilous sea voyages of more than 1,000 km (600 miles) organised from Mauritania and Senegal by people-traffickers who make a lucrative business carrying would-be migrants seeking a better life in Europe.
Starting a two-day meeting in the Senegalese capital, senior officials from more than 50 countries of Europe and Africa worked on Tuesday on a joint action plan that foresees an integrated multinational strategy on migration.
The plan, originally drafted by Morocco, Spain and France - three countries in the front line of the immigration problem - is due to be adopted by European and African ministers at a summit on migration in Rabat on July 10-11.
"This is a political initiative of the highest importance that aims to combine both managing migrant flows and managing development," Alvaro Iranzo, a senior Spanish Foreign Ministry official, said.
On Europe's southern flank facing Africa, Spain is the first target of thousands of penniless sub-Saharan Africans seeking entry to Europe, and Madrid has launched a diplomatic offensive in West Africa to try to staunch the flow.
But while coastal patrols and surveillance can cut illegal departures, European and African experts agree such short-term measures will be useless unless the unemployment, poverty and conflict that cause migration from Africa are tackled.
"If we don't go to the root causes, there's not going to be a solution," Moroccan delegation chief Youssef Amrani said.
Delegates said the novelty of the joint European-African migration initiative was that destination, origin and transit countries were coming together to seek solutions. "This affects us all. We need a global response," Amrani said.
While a consensus existed for joint action, delegates said they expected discussions on how to find a balance between improved controls to halt illegal migration and long-term measures to help poor countries whose young people were leaving.
"Of course, the Africans will want more money. The Europeans will look for more cooperation in controlling coastlines and borders," a European diplomat, who asked not to be named, said.
The draft plan calls for improved European cooperation, aid and trade with Africa to attack the root causes of migration and help keep young Africans in their own countries.
But it also proposes stronger police and security cooperation on land, sea and in the air to crack down on migrant smuggling networks, which Senegal's Interior Minister Ousmane Ngom condemned as "modern-day slavers".
"We must together mobilise all necessary resources to unmask and eradicate them," Ngom told the meeting.
The draft document also refers to the need for "readmission agreements" which will allow receiving countries to send back illegal or undesirable migrants to their nations of origin.
This has proved a problem for Spain, which wants to repatriate hundreds of Senegalese and other African illegal migrants from the Canary islands.
Senegal last week suspended repatriation flights from the Canaries, saying its migrants had been mistreated by Spanish authorities. Madrid denied this.
Iranzo said repatriations were an essential deterrent to illegal migration.
Comments
Comments are closed.