By Toby Green
On November 27, Niger’s military government repealed a law which had been in force since 2015. The law criminalised the smuggling of migrants in the country, with a particular focus on activities in and around the historic city of Agadez.
With long prison sentences and the seizure of vehicles awaiting those prosecuted under the law, many in Niger have welcomed the move as a step to remove the fetters of neo-colonialism.
The law had been seen by many as a response by Nigérien lawmakers to pressure from the European Union. On passage of the law, the EU established a five billion Euro “trust fund” for Africa, and one billion Euros went to Niger between 2015 and 2020 under this scheme.
However, the EU partnership disappeared overnight following the coup against President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26th.
Some observers felt that French president Emmanuel Macron had hitherto favoured a soft approach to the new military government, led by General Abdourahmane Tiani, in an effort to safeguard the migration accords and other areas of cooperation.
However, with Niger’s repeal of the migration law, this approach has now also hit the dust.
Predictably, the EU has reacted angrily to the new step. In September, it said that 876 suspected people traffickers were prosecuted under the law between 2017 and 2023. That was before the junta repealed the law.
Following the move by the Nigérien government, the EU commissioner for home affairs, Ylva Johansson, worried that “more people…[will try] to cross the Mediterranean today to the EU”.
In fact, the debate surrounding this move in Niger exemplify many of the core issues surrounding migration from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe.
The EU rhetoric emphasises the “success” of the previous law, but passes over many criticisms: that the legislation did not stop migration, but sent it underground, creating far greater risks for migrants and achieving success only “on the spreadsheet”.
Moreover, very few of the actors will discuss what may be seen by many readers as the core issue: why so many young people in the region are willing to abandon their families and risk their lives in the hope of crossing the desert to reach Europe.
With widespread news reports of the enormous risks of this undertaking – and common estimates that around 1 in 5 migrants die in the attempt to reach Europe – why is the migration crisis only increasing?
For it is not only in Niger that the situation is in crisis point. In Algeria, American pressure was sustained for many years that the government should “crack down” on people trafficking networks.
In January, the Algerian government announced a new law to combat “human trafficking”.
By April, news emerged that thousands of migrants were having to walk through the Sahara desert into Niger, having been thrown out by the Algerian authorities under this law.
In truth, the real numbers of migrants from Africa forced into this situation are very hard to estimate. Recent evidence suggests that these estimates are the tip of the iceberg.
A report from the Institute for Security Studies suggests that 2023 has been the deadliest year on record for the central Mediterranean migration route to Europe.
Moreover writing on the UN website, Sierra Leone’s permanent representative in Geneva, Lansana Gberie, noted that the number of displaced people worldwide increased by almost 20% in 2022 alone.
A wide range of recent evidence – from organisations ranging from the Royal United Services Institute to a panel at the United Nations High Level Political Forum in July -- suggests that neo-colonial frameworks related to the enormity of the inappropriate nature of the Covid-19 response in Africa have a large role to play in the current situation.
Government indebtedness has increased dramatically in Africa, alongside rampant inflation which began within a year of the Covid-19 pandemic, and long before the Russia-Ukraine war.
Given how many die in the desert and in the ocean, as a recent short film from Senegal made clear, what is at stake is nothing less than an enormous human tragedy – which political leaders attempt to stage-manage without addressing the root causes of poverty and this consequent calamity.
These real-life causes include debt frameworks linked to the extraction of raw materials, including fishing rights pursued by the EU and China, which have had severe effects on food security.
Leaders of Western nations make loud statements about addressing the migration crisis. But these statements are almost entirely based on the perceptions of their own countries.
Dealing with this crisis will require a more equitable global financial settlement: more local returns, in Africa, from African manufacturing and supply chains, less economic cartels structured around privileged access to raw materials through frameworks of debt and “aid”.
Empty tub-thumping and finger-pointing at the governments and peoples of some of the least developed countries is a pointless and navel-gazing activity.
There is a requirement for Western leaders to speak the truth clearly: “migration security” requires broader economic justice.
The author, Toby Green, is Professor of Precolonial and Lusophone African History and Culture at King’s College London.
Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of TRT Afrika.
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