Research Reveals Illegal Migrants From Africa Are Not Poor

While poverty has often been blamed for the massive flow of migrants from Africa to Europe, research findings show that irregular migrants are not the poorest in the African society.

The study conducted by the Centre for Migration Studies has shown other mediating factors, including environmental hazards, conflicts have contributed to the increasing spate of migration from Africa to Europe.

Director of the Centre Prof Joseph Teye who disclosed the findings of the study at the lecture series of the Centre for European Studies said the high levels of irregular migration is becoming more and more disturbing.

The lecture series, the first in 2018, was under the theme: “ Interrogating the Forces behind Migration from Africa to Europe.”

According to Prof Teye, the global stock of international migrants increased from 173 million in 2000 to 247 million in 2016, representing 3.3 percent of the world’s population.

But the figures for migration in Africa are hard to come by because migration is largely undocumented, he pointed out.

Prof Teye said some of the grueling dangers and challenges of African migrants in host countries are alarming and called for better collaboration between African and European governments to address the fundamental inequalities between the two regions.

He said strict border control alone cannot be the panacea to the problem of illegal migration.

The Head of the EU Delegation, Ambassador William Hanna said the needless deaths and torture that have come to be associated with these illegal migrations can be minimized or eliminated completely if African governments can take full advantage of the trade partnerships between Europe and Africa in order to generate wealth for development.

He said the dissipation of talents, brains and human resources of many African countries through illegal migration should come to an end.

The Director of the Centre for European Studies, Prof Ransford Gyampo said given the alarming number of human resource lost to illegal migration, there is the need for more attention to given on migration.

He said the Centre will concentrate on a lot of research into activities relating to Africa and European relations.

The lecture, was attended by students, faculty, civil society, media practitioners, clergy, traditional authorities, parliamentarians, policy makers, Ambassadors, European Union Delegation in Ghana and other EU-Member country representatives in Ghana.

Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com