The human tide of African and Middle East refugees and migrants determined to escape war, ethnic and religious conflicts, human rights abuses or economic hardships, floods into Europe daily in what has become a tragic humanitarian crisis.
The numbers continue to grow. At the end of August, the UN High Commission for Refugees reported that more than 300,000 refugees and migrants had used the dangerous sea route across the Mediterranean so far this year with almost 200,000 of them landing in Greece and a further 110,000 in Italy. This represents a large increase from 2014, when around 219,000 people crossed the Mediterranean during the entire year.
The refugee agency also said an estimated 2,500 refugees and migrants died or went missing this year, while trying to reach Europe.
As Italy, Greece and Hungary bear the brunt of the influx, in early September the European Commission, the European Union's (EU) administrative body, proposed a string of measures. They included a $2-billion trust fund for Africa aimed at tackling the root cause of the refugee problem in North Africa. The fund would be used to improve economic and social conditions in North Africa, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. Africans fleeing include people from Eritrea, Somalia and South Sudan.
The EU would be wise to concede that these refugees and migrants can point to Europe's involvement in wars, or support of wayward regimes, which has resulted in many of the places the refugees are originating from being destroyed. Perhaps the chickens are now coming home to roost and it is the ultimate payback for colonialism. Dealing with its former colonies in Africa, the EU has tough choices to make. These include putting the brakes on military engagement, being seen not to condone autocratic rulers, and revisiting trade and investment deals that benefit only a few.
And what of the African Union's (AU) role in this crisis? If Africa was more inviting to those fleeing their own countries for reasons of persecution, then the dangerous journey to Europe would have an alternative. African leaders, through the AU, need to work together with the EU to examine and find solutions to the refugee and migrant crises because as long as the shores of Europe and the magnet of an improved lifestyle and functioning human rights mechanisms remain, the flow of people will continue, irrespective of the fact that there is a distinct possibility of perishing before arrival.
Ultimately, the only effective long-term fix for this catastrophe is to end the conflicts that are pushing people to flee their homes. If the conflicts arise out of man-made problems then world leaders need to sit around a table and broker a deal - with the Syrian civil war being top of the agenda. Failure to do so will see more loss of life, among those trapped and those attempting to escape. In the process Europe may become further divided by how each country deals with refugees and migrants and how the numbers of arrivals are allocated. It is that simple and that complicated.
Migration must always be a voluntary choice and not a course of action forced by the desperate need for survival.
THE EDITOR
