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With life unliveable here, our youths won’t stop trying to go to Europe

Saturday August 30 2014

If the question were asked today which countries have suffered most from illegal immigration we would be quite sure about our reply: The United States, Australia, Italy, Spain etc.

For the US we would have in our minds that long border that separates it from (or unites it with) Mexico, and the daily crossings of “Chicanos” going north to try the American dream that beckons and seduces permanently.

With Australia the inevitable thought would be of all those Asians – Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians, Bangladeshis etc – some of whom were once dubbed “boat people,” washing up on that country’s shores, fleeing from conflict and poverty.

As for Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and other European countries, that is an African zone. The thousands of “illegals” in these countries are from Africa, and they constitute a major source of worry for the Europeans.

Not only does the arrival of such large numbers of unwanted guests put a strain on host economies, which are already reeling from high levels of unemployment, but increasingly countries such as Italy and Spain have to deal with seaborne catastrophes that arrive with these Africans.

It is so bad where they come from, it seems, that they are willing to endure untold suffering at sea, including almost certain death, rather than continue to live the lives they have been living in their own countries.

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But illegal migration has been with us for a long, long time. Referring to more modern times only, we know that those who call themselves Americans today arrived on American shores without visas. And they did not even get an official document with a stamp signed by Chief Powhatan authorising them to stay on his land.

As for Australia, the Brits thought it was a good enough place to serve as a prison for its murderers, thieves, brigands, prostitutes and other undesirable elements. The authorities in London failed to even notice that there were already people living on that expanse of land.

Indeed, the dishonest logic used to justify such illegal immigrations across the world and ages was, and still is, that when the Europeans arrived the country was uninhabited, a no-man’s land. It applied to South Africa as well, with the Dutch settlers claiming they found no one at the Cape.

Often, faced with the evidence to the contrary, they tampered with it, sometimes destroying it altogether. They almost succeeded in their dark designs, though they could not wipe out all the evidence, as the surviving Aborigines and Native Americans will testify. There was little they could do with the Khoisan, Zulu and Venda.

Now it is the turn of Africans to do a little illegal immigration of their own, the Europeans do not seem to like it. But it will continue because it is not much different than those earlier immigrations.

There is the dream of a better life that Africans aspire to. At any rate, the living conditions in many of the countries feeding their youths to the sharks are untenable.

Between Boko Haram, Azzawad, Al Shabaab, Seleka, Balaka, FDLR, Mayi Mayi, M23, Riek Machar-Salva Kiir and Ebola, African youth feel they have nothing left to lose, and any place is better than their own homes.

It’s a terrible indictment of the rulers of this continent who, mired in their egotistical self-interest and untrammelled by an excess of imagination, have completely failed to lead their peoples out of poverty, misery and despondency.

Alassane Dicko, who heads the Malian Expelled Migrants Association (AME) says: ‘All the young people who dream of going to Europe are prepared to die on their trip. In their minds, staying here is a kind of death.”

The numbers are simply staggering, and they seem to increase with each passing year. One chilling stat will suffice: Five hundred African youths died in October of last year alone. One gateway, one month.

We can expect more deaths of our young people as they are piled into rickety boats to embark on hazardous voyages, and, of course, more nonchalance from our rulers who couldn’t care less. They are too busy eating.

Jenerali Ulimwengu is chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema newspaper and an advocate of the High Court in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: [email protected]

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