The illegal immigration quandary

Perhaps no news was as spectacular last week than the 39 bodies found in a lorry container in Essex – a county in the south-east of England, lying north-east of London, United Kingdom (UK).The grim find was uncovered on Wednesday morning in a refrigerated trailer at Waterglade Industrial Park.That week in that country and probably in many parts of the world many were glued to their television sets watching the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson battling for the passage of his Brexit bill through the Parliament, at the Westminster.

The Brexit bill, setting out a set of measures taking the country out of the European Union (EU) with a deal had divided the country and the political parties to no end. Speakers in the Parliament representing different shades of opinion in the political parties have been at one another’s throats for monthsin an acrimonious debate that had caught the attention of the world.The fact that the Prime Minister hasn’t got a working majority to get his Bill through made the debate more intriguing by the day.

Yet this dreary discovery of bodies had rightly eclipsed the boisterous uproars of the politicians in the parliament. At first the bodies found in the refrigerated trailer were thought to be Chinese citizens until families in Vietnam started reporting Facebook conversations with their relations who were on their way to Britain through those dubious routes and were feared tobe among those who met this grisly end. The reasons why the initial media reports attributed the bodies to be Chinese would probably be an echo from the more gruesome findsin 2008 of 58 migrants suffocated in a lorry in Dover, a ferry port in Kent, Southern England. Those ones were said to definitely be of Chinese origin.

In this particular case the police investigations in UK have trailed the journey of the container trailer containing the bodies of the hapless victims and have confirmed that it was shipped from Zeebrugge in Belgium on a ferry into the Port of Purfleet in the East of England. The trailer landed in the port area shortly on Wednesday morning and left on the truck later in the day. The lorry stopped at the Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays where the police made the grim find. However, the police are still investigating how the 39 made a rendezvous with their fate in that container.

Deaths of this nature affecting migrants are fast becoming routine in the European shores. We recall the infamous discovery in 2015 of 71 decomposing bodies of migrants found in a lorry on an Austrian motorway.The victimswere said to have mainly originated from Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. In their quest to get away from the wars of attrition afflicting their countries these helpless citizens of the world pay their ways through merciless traffickers to get them to Europe. Along the way these 71 found themselves in the hands of an incompetent lorry driver who inadvertently sealed them off in belly of the lorry causing an agonising death for them.

It is not only the land routes into Europe that are prone to these horrifying deaths. The sea route has now become even more treacherous as European countries have tightened security on their land borders. Many, particularly from African countries, attempt to reach Europe using the Mediterranean as a last resort. Desperate migrants seek to reach the European shores from the beaches of North Africa through the Mediterranean, using rickety boats and in those unfortunate cases meeting with unwholesome tragedies. These deaths have upped a great deal in the last few years. In 2016, over 5000 died crossing the Mediterranean. One of the worst disasters was also recorded that year when at a time 100 souls perished in the sea. The figure dropped to 3116 in 2017 but went up to 4503 in 2018. But this year it seems the figures are on their way up again. In July this year one of the worst fatalities was reported by the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM). About 150 migrants perished when their wooden boat capsized somewhere off Libya’s coast and sank.

The tragedies afflicting migrants, particularly the manner they meet their gruesome ends is a sad statement on the state of affairs in many countries of the world from where the victims emanate. To me it comes with plenty of déjà vu. The story of migrants dying in sealed compartments of lorries in deals brokered by heartless human traffickers is a continuing thing. It seems to be as old as anyone living now can remember. Those of us familiar with the works of GhassanKanaafani, the Palestinian author and a leading member of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) can recall his famous novel, Men inthe Sun.Though published in 1962, the story of the unfortunate trio of Abu Qais, Assad and Marwaan, trying to escape from the drudgery of their Palestinian IDP camp,caused by the occupation of their land by Israel, has remained a lasting allegory on the state of migrants world-wide.

In the story Abu Qais and his colleagues decided to be smuggled from Iraq into Kuwait where they hoped to find work. They were sealed in a ramshackle water tanker and driven under the harsh August sun through numerous checkpoints only toreach their destination dead.Whenever I hear of death of migrants reaching out to an elusive ElDorado, I go back to read GhassanKanaafani’sMenin the Sun. Unfortunately,GhassanKanaafani was himself tragically assassinated in a bomb blast in 1972. He was then living in Beirut, Lebanon as spokesman of the PFPL and the bomb was alleged to be planted under his car by agents of MOSSAD, the dreaded National Intelligence Agency of Israel.

It is a pity that as wars, corrupt and/or incompetent leaders keep on putting many countries of the world under the yoke of impoverishment and the supposed El Dorado of Europe, the USA and others keep on hardening their immigration policies and shutting up their borders these deaths are bound to continue without let. I wish someone has the magic wand put a stop to these wanton waste of human lives.

From my mail bag: The National Institute at 40.

Mohammed Modibbo: Honestly I am not impressed with NIPSS at 40. Despite all the so-called high calibre intake and what you described as high impact on policy. My reason? The present shape our country is nothing is nothing to write home about. High insecurity, internal slavery, little or no power and high unemployment rate. All these were allowed to accumulate over a long period of time during which these high calibre NIPSS alumni have been holding sway in the country. Nothing much impressive about them.

Paul Clough: Teacher: DC Tarachi: Exit Eng O. K. Inuwa: Baba Gana Mohd:

of a Great

I have just finished reading your piece. It was interesting. For those of us who were around in the School of Basic Studies ABU, Zaria, now nearly 50 years ago, that piece ushered us into a beautiful memory lane. May the soul of Paul Clough rest in perfect peace. Amen.

Thanks for your interesting column and the story on Paul Clough. Have my sympathy for the loss of your teacher and friend. Though a science student in SBS 1971/72 I made friends with many arts students of our set who later moved to FASS (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences). I enjoyed discussions with and learning from them on current affairs and Marxism.

Beautiful piece regarding Paul Clough. I may not have known him but the way he handled his students reminds me of how Professor Jide Osuntokun treated us many years ago in the University of Maiduguri.