Illegal migration: Fruit of an unjust order
Abdoulie Sey 2014-06-26, Issue 684 Pambazuka News
Migration is as old as humanity itself. We have been migrating since and as of now there is nothing to suggest that we will ever stop moving from one place to another. Certainly, there is strong evidence to suggest that migration will continue to be a dominant human preoccupation for many years to come, if not forever. Migration is not unique to people, even animals are full time participants in this historical phenomenon. Spurred by the necessities of survival, every year millions of birds, fish, and other animals make remarkable journeys across forests, mountains, seas, and deserts in search of better lives. When the migration is seasonal the animals do return to their place of origin in due course but when it is due to reasons beyond salvation, they go for good. If you watch the Planet Earth series narrated by British naturalist David Attenborough, you will fully appreciate the migratory exploits of animals. Therefore, migration is important for both humans and animals.
However, following the 3 October 2013 Lampedusa boat disaster which resulted in the death of almost 300 African illegal or undocumented migrants, it is vital that we Africans take a closer look at our faith in this frequent avoidable disasters. The Lampedusa boat disaster involved migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Italy or Europe in general. But it is not only the sea that claims the lives of desperate African migrants. Recently it was reported that about 30 nationals of the republic of Niger including women and children were feared to have died of thirst after the vehicle they were traveling in to Algeria en route to Europe broke down in the Sahara Desert.
Frankly, migration is vital to human survival. Without migration human beings would not have been able to colonize the earth, as they have done. The human race has settled in virtually all the habitable parts of the globe because of our ability to relocate when the need arises. Though the substance of migration has not changed, today it is classified into legal and illegal. Some people think the term illegal migration is improper. They prefer the terms irregular migration or undocumented migration. We do know that 500 years ago when Europeans came to Africa, the Americas and Asia to trade, rob and conquer they were not called illegal migrants but explorers, discoverers and missionaries. Nice and glorious names indeed. Anyway, call it what you will, here we are not interested in diction or semantics but in the substance of the issue.
Why do our African brothers and sisters plus other underprivileged people of the world take the dangerous ‘back way’ journey to Europe undaunted by even the latest disasters? The answers are not hard to come by. The present political and economic configuration of the planet is a perfect catalyst for illegal migration. When wealth and power is concentrated in the hands of a few monopolists cornered in one part or negligible parts of the earth, we can only expect that the deprived majority would strive by all means to access the oases. After all, the migrants are not demanding a pound of flesh from the rich world; they are only requesting their fair share. If the world’s economic system continues to be built on the current rules of exploitation, elevating the wealthy and pushing more than half of humanity into poverty and subjugation, illegal migration would increase with greater frequency and intensity. The dispossessed people of Africa and other parts of the earth would naturally be tempted to move to the richer EU and North America in search of better lives.
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