August 31, 2017

The Migrant Crisis Proves Endless Cruelty Once Again

located:	France, Nigeria, Chad, Libya
editor:	Shira Jeczmien

Boundaries are blurred, it seems, when it comes to the inhumanity inflicted on those who are most vulnerable. On Monday, a number of leaders from the European Union, together with prime ministers from three African countries met in Paris to discuss ways the so called ‘migration crisis’ can be controlled.

Tagged as an economic and political ‘European’ migration crisis, it has seen more than 120,000 migrants arrive in Europe by sea, and 2,600 bodies washed up on European beaches from January alone. Photographs of lifeless figures atop golden sands, infants, grey in colour and innocent in their expression have been merely added to the image cache of today’s world. These are people escaping the darkest of realities.

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), this figure is a third of last year’s. But while numbers might show the crisis is decreasing, it’s in fact only an indication that it is shifting – rather than coming to any sort of end.

The main focus of the mini-summit was on the central Mediterranean route, but the main question, how European countries are contributing to the crisis by the support of certain governments and corporations, still proves to be unpalatable – responsibility for neo-colonial economic policies disguised as globalisation were nowhere to be seen.

"The idea is to create hotspots to avoid people taking crazy risks when they are not all eligible for asylum. We'll go to them," Emmanuel Macron said. How to execute this strategy together with ways to relieve the countries most affected by the migrant crisis is what the leaders of France, Germany, Spain, Italy and EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini set out to do.

Invited to represent the three African countries who have some of the largest numbers of fleeing migrant were Nigeria, Chad and Libya.

So what has changed from this year to last in terms of the ruthless migration routes, taken on by the most desperate? Where are the other two thirds of last year’s figures? They are being held in Libya and in their own countries – unable to make the desperate journey into a life filled with false promises; only to find themselves once again lacking their human rights, in a new, European refugee camp, that boasts many of the same traits of those they fled from.

“At the core of it, it’s all about fighting illegal migration” said Merkel. No Mrs. Merkel, at the core of it is the moral responsibility to deal with the causes of the illegal migration. Placing checkpoints inside Chad, Nigeria and Libya will not help. Assisting political migrants and supporting economical changes will.

Yet what to me seems so tragically misunderstood in the summit’s conclusion, is that the decision each migrant has made to leave their country, family and culture behind, is an act of utmost desperation, birthing determination that the suggested checkpoints or crackdowns will inevitably fail to contain, leading migrants to take more perilous routes.

World leaders can preach for tougher policies on migration, they can build walls and patrol oceans, but it will never stop the migration we’re witnessing today. No checkpoint will help the deprived; only checks and controls of the money flowing into the pockets of corrupt politicians unwilling to provide their people with a better life will bring the necessary change to address the root of the so called ‘European migrant crisis’.