RABAT: Micro-credits, academic exchanges, tax cuts for money transfers — bright ideas abounded at a meeting of more than 50 countries’ ministers in Morocco aimed at combating illegal migration and promoting development.
But as much as European and African ministers spoke of a new dynamism in their cooperation, the conference highlighted long-standing differences over responsibility for repatriating migrants and the level of EU help to Africa.
Delegates tiptoed around the problems of corruption and mismanagement that have widened the north-south wealth gap and turned Europe into a magnet for young Africans desperate to escape poverty.
“There doesn’t seem to be much of a change of tack by Europe, which is still obsessed with fighting illegal migration,” said Mohamed Khachani, head of the Moroccan migration research group AMERM.
“We expected a frank and sincere dialogue that goes to the heart of the problem, but it seems that didn’t happen.”
He said little was done to relieve the immediate suffering of thousands of destitute Africans ready to brave treacherous seas in crowded motor launches and decrepit fishing boats for the chance of a new life in Europe.
Europe, keen to prove it is sympathetic, played up the benefits of legal migration and championed ideas like micro-credits for migrants to set up businesses back home, and centres of medical excellence to stop an exodus of African health workers.
A new observation unit will track migrant movements and states agreed to work together to crack down on human trafficking gangs, branded “21st century slave traders” by Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio.
But there was little mention of the waste and corruption that has left swathes of Africa starved of infrastructure and meant economic growth and living standards have failed to keep pace with the rapidly growing population.
“Europe has a fundamental role to play when we talk about bad governance because these governments are often supported by the European Union,” said Khachani.
Analysts said the conference risked going down as a missed opportunity.
No major new development aid for Africa was announced, though the wealthy EU held out the prospect of giving Morocco up to 70 million euros to tackle illegal migration.
George Joffe, analyst at the Centre of International Studies in Cambridge, England, said part of the reason for the migrant crisis was that decades of development aid had failed to create enough jobs in Africa.
“The EU can’t say anything on that as its own developmemnt policies are the same as those of the IMF and World Bank. So it can only treat migration as a security issue,” he said.
Oumar Hamadoun Dicko, Mali’s minister for nationals living abroad, said Africa needed more than micro-credits. “We need to find solutions to unemployment problems, especially for the young,” he said. “We need a Marshall Plan for Africa, not help that comes drop by drop.”
Signs of exasperation occasionally troubled the conference’s carefully managed aura of diplomatic harmony.
Canary Islands President Adan Martin Menis said Senegal had still not committed itself to joining sea patrols to prevent illegal migrants setting off for the Spanish-owned islands.
African delegates said the EU would need to come up with more money if illegal migration was to be stamped out.—Reuters
