People or borders – what counts at the Valletta migrant summit?
AS EUROPEAN and African leaders met in Valletta, Italy, this week for a major summit on migration, they had a great opportunity to address the problems driving people from their homes to take such perilous journeys.
But, at the same time, there is a risk that EU member states will bow to anti-immigration rhetoric and focus on short-term measures to stop migrants reaching Europe instead of committing sincerely to develop safe and legal channels for migration and solutions to the causes behind displacement.
So far, the EU’s response has understandably been criticised for being reactive, piecemeal and short-sighted. Migration is perceived as a “problem to be solved” for Europe or, worse still, a “threat” to European security.
This perception needs to be set aside in favour of an honest debate about the real problems. In other words, the EU needs to stop focusing only on its border security and start taking action to help people who are on the move to improve their lives. African leaders also need to address situations that force people to flee, focusing on the prevention and resolution of crises in Africa that drive displacement within the continent and beyond.
The latest figures show that over the past 15 years at least 31 000 people have died or gone missing trying to reach Europe. This toll tells us the EU’s approach is failing. Increasing security and border control and criminalisation of irregular migration will only increase the suffering. Valletta is a chance for change, if the EU allows human rights take a front seat in the migration debate.
EU leaders and their African partners must start from the acknowledgement that migration itself is not a problem to be solved.
People might be on the move for many reasons and have been for millennia. Moreover, migration has been shown to bring concrete benefits to receiving countries, including, according to the the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a net contribution to social benefits and economic growth. It often has some benefits for the communities of origin of migrants as well, including through remittances.
However, migration can also be a coping mechanism for people who have few other choices. People confronted with a crisis often flee as a logical and potentially life-saving response. Such displacement has many causes.
Europe, together with the rest of the developed world, has a duty to act because its behaviour is often deeply linked to the root causes of the problems that, among other things, cause people to flee – the arms trade fuels conflicts, industrial pollution drives climate change and tax dodging practices in Europe deprive developing countries of much needed resources for basic services.
These are the problems European leaders need to start addressing for a comprehensive response to displacement. But the EU leaders attending the Valletta summit – which started yesterday and ends today – run the risk of diverting funds for development aid away from lifting people out of poverty to increasing border control through the EU’s planned “Trust Fund for Africa”.
I am concerned about this and I urge EU leaders to adhere to the Lisbon Treaty in which the European nations asserted that the primary purpose of development aid was to reduce poverty.
To be effective it must be provided in line with the needs and plans of recipient countries and their people, not used as a bargaining chip to obtain cooperation to address perceived problems for Europe. The EU should make a clear commitment that money from the trust fund will be used for schools and clinics, not barbed wire and checkpoints.
Development aid must never be linked to or conditioned by agreements on stronger border control, stifling of mobility within Africa or any other area not directly associated with the fight against poverty. Instead, cooperation on border control must be made contingent upon demonstrated respect for human rights, mobility principles and the rights of asylum seekers. If it is sincere about championing universal values, the EU can’t take forward security deals with governments that do not respect human rights.
At Valletta, Europe has to stop looking at migration through a European security lens and demonstrate its capacity for leadership in a much broader global migration phenomenon. People are more important than borders. The migration summit presents an opportunity for Europe to put its commitment to security and human rights, sustainable development and prevention of violent conflict, into practice – not to ignore them. Winnie Byanyima is Oxfam International’s
executive director