Moving North

In the last few days, the number of illegal emigrants that have tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Italy and the EU has increased dramatically. This flow shows that spring has arrived and the waters are much calmer. It also shows that the trend to migrate to Europe through North Africa, particularly through Libya, has not gone down, notwithstanding the lack of suitable jobs in our part of the world. But for a young man from Niger or Senegal, from Pakistan or Bangladesh, the dream is clear: to come and work in Europe is the ambition.

Recently I was trying to discourage someone from getting into this kind of adventure. Based in Dakar, a city that has gone poorer and overcrowded during the last fifteen years or so, the young fellow couldn´t believe me when I told him that there is no job for a bricklayer in today´s Europe. For him and his friends the truth is very simple: where they live today there is no future. And if you are a person full of energy you just keep moving. 

The absence of an immigration policy

One could again notice in the recent days that the EU has no common policy on immigration. The states still look at the issue as a national matter and not as a common challenge. The resources made available to FRONTEX, the agency charged with the EU border policing are clearly insufficient. Moreover, the leaders do not take a comprehensive approach and deal with the issue with one tool only - border control - when it is clear that other measures are necessary. Without a combination of approaches, combining policing with diplomacy, development assistance, strategic communications, and an integration policy, we will continue to see the misery boats crossing the Mediterranean in search of the next tragedy.