Out of Africa: Understanding Economic Refugees

Young African migrants seek opportunities abroad as the World Bank projects that “the world’s extreme poor will be increasingly concentrated in Africa”. Credit: Ilaria Vechi/IPSBy Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame SundaramSYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Sep 19 2017 (IPS)Not a single month has passed without dreadful disasters triggering desperate migrants to seek refuge in Europe. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), at least 2,247 people have died or are missing after trying to enter Europe via Spain, Italy or Greece in the first half of this year. Last year, 5,096 deaths were recorded. The majority – including ‘economic migrants’, victims of ‘people smugglers’, and so on – were young Africans aged between 17 and 25. The former head of the British mission in Benghazi (Libya) claimed in April that as many as a million more were already on their way to Libya, and then Europe, from across Africa.Why flee Africa? Why are so many young Africans trying to leave the continent of their birth? Why are they risking their lives to flee Africa?Part of the answer lies in the failure of earlier economic policies of liberalization and privatization, typically introduced as part of the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) that many countries in Africa were subjected to from the 1980s and onwards. The World Bank, the African Development Bank and most Western donors supported the SAPs, despite United Nations’ warnings about their adverse social conseque...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Africa Aid Armed Conflicts Crime & Justice Economy & Trade Europe Headlines Health Human Rights Labour Middle East & North Africa Migration & Refugees Peace Religion TerraViva United Nations Trade & Investment Source Type: news