Propaganda to stop Senegal's migrants

Publié le 6 août 2007 par hort

Propaganda to stop Senegal's migrants

Senegalese authorities are to use national media in a large scale to propagate warnings about the dangers of illegal emigration attempts to Spain's nearby Canary Islands. Only yesterday, an estimated 50 West African migrants are feared to have lost their lives as their boat capsized off Tenerife island.

As part of efforts to combat significant levels of irregular migration from Senegal, the Senegalese government and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) have now launched an information campaign aimed at "raising awareness of the dangers of irregular migration and at preventing it," according to IOM.

Run by IOM and using largely radio, television and newspapers in Senegal to get the messages out, the campaign is also to include a road show at a later date which would travel to towns and villages affected by high rates of emigration in a bid to raise awareness of the phenomenon.

Nearly 32,000 irregular migrants arrived on the coast of the Canary Islands last year with many other migrants drowning at sea after travelling on overcrowded and rickety boats. Only yesterday, a wooden boat crowded with an estimated 100 Africans capsized of the island of Tenerife, with about 50 of the passengers still missing. Spanish authorities fear they will not be found alive.

The wave of illegal immigration to the Canary Islands has caused shock and outrage both in Spain and in West Africa. Spanish authorities, with the help of the European Union (EU) last year intensified cooperation with a number of West African countries to stop the ever-increasing trend of dangerous migration attempts. The IOM campaign is part of this effort.

According to IOM, "the campaign will not only support government efforts to stem irregular migration but will also inform potential migrants of legal methods of migration in an effort to avoid the many tragedies befalling irregular migrants, often including loss of life at sea in rickety boats."

Launched in the presence of Ousmane Ngom, Senegal's Minister of the Interior, the information campaign was said to be the first step in a broader effort to specifically engage migrant source regions within Senegal as well as border areas in the battle against irregular migration.

In addition to the campaign, a joint initiative of IOM and the Spanish government, IOM has pledged to support Senegalese efforts to put in place strategies allowing Senegalese youth to contribute to the socio-economic development of their country. Support was to be provided to returned and potential migrants in income generating opportunities as well as associations and state centres working in this domain.

The campaign falls within a programme of inter-regional dialogue between the EU and North and Sub-Saharan Africa which is funded by the European Commission

Straight talk from Hort

Unfortunately propaganda alone will not be able to stop Senegalese migrants coming to Europe because just like the war on drugs or terror or aids, if you treat the symptoms rather than the roots of the disease you will never be able to cure it. If the West/Senegal really want to stop the immigrants they need to stop the Spanish and French trawlers that fish in the territorial waters of Senegal which deprive the Senegalese fishermen of their livelihood. For millenia, the Senegalese have lived from fish but today most of their fishermen are unemployed and their people are suffering from a lack of protein due to a lack of fish in their diet. This situation has been caused by European fishemen who come to fish with their big fishing nets in Senegalese waters as fish becomes depleted in their waters, thus making it difficult for the local people to catch enough fish to eat or sell.

As a resut, the Senegalese are forced to emigrate to try and find work in Europe since they know that their fish comes here. So if these governments are truly serious about reducing the flow of Senegalese immigrants to Europe this is something concrete that they can do to ensure that they stay in their country but nothing will be done because when it comes to providing work for Africans or Europeans the choice is very clear. The newly elected French president confirmed this 2 days ago during the controversy surrounding the release of the Bulgarian nurses from Libya. He has insisted that there was no deal between France and Libya over their release when everybody knows that cannot be true.

The deal is for France to provide Libya with war machinery (antimissile tanks, etc) in other words, material that kill non Europeans, and he said “when it comes to providing work for French citizens, he will do whatever it takes”. Notice that he doesn’t really care that what he is selling will only cause death and destruction, all he cares about is that the French factories that make these weapons continue to turn and the French employees working in them continue to work. The Senegalese government like the French can put a stop to the Europeans fishing in their waters? Why don’t they? We African people had better wake up, and understand how the real world works. Only one’s interests matter, friendship has nothing to do with.

Finally, to stop all African immigration to Europe, all the jobs that were delocalized (relocated) from Africa 500 years ago, with the advent of slavery must be returned to Africa. When Europe conquered Africa, it enslaved all of Africa's people, took away all their skilled jobs and gave them to Europeans, then relegated Africans to the menial jobs and that situation has continued right up until today. Every business person knows that menial jobs are not wealth creating. This is really the root cause of poverty and underdevelopment in Africa. It is not African leaders as most propaganda would have us believe. Why should south Africa's gold be transformed in Antwerp, Belgian and not in South Africa? Why should Ivorian coffee beans be transformed into coffee in Europe and not in the Ivory Coast? Why should Sierre Leonian diamonds be transformed in Europe and not in Sierre Leone? These are the aberrations that were put into place by Europeans 500 years ago that must be corrected if African people are to stay in their continent. Africa looses millions of dollars each day because its industries have been relocated to Europe and other parts of the world, yet this topic is never ever raised when discusssing African underdevelopment. Unless this racist economic system which was introduced 500 years ago, with whites at the top,(service industry sector) other races in the middle (manufacturing sector) and blacks at the bottom (extraction of raw materials) is radically transformed, the war on immigrants will end up like the war on drugs:incurable.