Increasing state repression and a lack of opportunities for citizens are the main reasons for the growing exodus from the African continent, according to a British organization.
Increasing state repression and a lack of opportunities for citizens are the main reasons for the growing exodus from the African continent, according to a British organization.
African countries are becoming increasingly repressive and causing more people to leave their homes, the British organization Oxfam said this week, while Germany warned of the destabilizing effect migration is having in Africa.
Political freedom and the problem of talent drain from Africa were among the main topics on the agenda of the World Economic Forum on Africa, held in Durban, South Africa, which ended this Friday (05.05).
Oxfam's executive director, Winnie Byanyima, said that "repressive laws on freedom of association and expression" were "a driving force behind migration".
Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, warned that "if we fail to stabilize the African continent in the coming years and decades, we will face ever greater geopolitical risks," including more migrants in Europe.
South African President Jacob Zuma, who organized the forum, described dealing with migration as one of the "critical challenges facing the world".
Lack of opportunities for Africans
The total number of migrants worldwide reached 244 million in 2015, and among them a record 63 million were forced to leave their homes, including refugees, people displaced within their own countries and asylum seekers, the World Food Program warned this Friday.
Byanyima said that the massive outflows from Africa are a reality that says a lot about the performance of the continent's political class. "This is our assessment of the political leadership we have in Africa, which fails to create economic opportunities for its people," she told the AFP news agency.
"In many of these countries you have illegitimate repressive regimes that spend the money that should be going to train their people on security systems, on monitoring their citizens, on opposition and on silencing the media," said Oxfam's executive director.
A recent survey by CIVICUS, which monitors freedoms around the world, found that only two African countries were totally open - the island nations of Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe. No country on the African continent was considered free.
Cooperation from rich countries
Byanyima also criticized wealthy governments that have diverted their aid budgets to cover the costs of refugee arrivals.
"Rich countries must stop redirecting aid, they must maintain aid to the countries affected by the conflict and must not divert it to meet the costs of refugees in their countries or their security needs."
"If they help to make countries stable, to achieve inclusive growth, then people won't want to leave their homes. Development cooperation is a tool for peace and stability," he added.
The risk of migration
This year alone, more than a thousand migrants have died making the perilous passage from Libya to Italy across the Mediterranean Sea, according to the UN refugee agency. Last year, there were around 5,000 deaths.
More than 36,700 people have been rescued and taken to Italy this year, according to the International Organization for Migration, an increase of almost 45% compared to the same period last year.
At least 150 of the dead were children, although the figure is probably higher, as many underage migrants travel unaccompanied, so their deaths often go unreported, according to UNICEF.
Source: Deutsche Welle