A former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has called on African leaders to eliminate conflict, abject poverty and create employment opportunities for their citizens.
This, he said, would stem the current tide of illegal immigration of Africans into Europe.
He also called on the international community to come to the aid of African nations, where these illegal immigrants originated from.
He said this in an article he released to the media on Monday in Abeokuta, titled, “Calling for international collaborative efforts to stem the tide of illegal immigration from Africa into Europe.”
Obasanjo said the solutions to solving the migrants’ challenge must be approached in a holistic, humane, honest and responsible manner rather than the current futile attempt to half-heartedly deal with the symptoms, and not the cause.
He said, “It is time for the international community, and particularly African leaders, to take a good look at the factors responsible for the death and destruction by illegal migration of youths from Africa and address the causes in an honest, responsible, humane and holistic manner rather than the current futile attempt to half-heartedly deal with the symptoms rather than the cause.
“The sure way of prevention is the elimination of conflict and abject poverty and creation of employment in the countries where migrants originate.”
In the meantime, the former President said the African Union should form a bulwark to stem the spate of migrants from Africa across the Mediterranean to Europe, adding that, “It can be done.”
He recalled in September 2000, when the late Libyan leader, Col. Muammar Ghaddafi, called him and complained about the presence in Libya of thousands of Nigerian illegal immigrants attempting to make their way to Europe.
He said he instructed his National Security Adviser to raise a team of officials from the security agencies to proceed to Libya to document all the illegal immigrants from Nigeria and approved funds for an aircraft to be chartered for their evacuation.
Obasanjo said the former maximum leader never allowed illegal immigrants to use his country as a connecting route to Europe.
He said, “This process resulted in the return of over 17,000 Nigerians back from Libya. Considerable numbers of illegal immigrants were also repatriated back to other countries by air and by road. According to reports I received, Ghana evacuated 5,000 of its citizens and Sudan 3,000.”
He berated the present crop of leadership in Libya, who had opened up the country as a veritable route to Europe, for their own benefit.
He said, “It is undeniable that the vacuum created by the lack of effective governance in Libya, precipitated by the direct action of Western powers, is responsible for the current anarchy in that country.
“The current inflow of African refugees into Europe from Libya is a direct consequence.
“The government in Libya, which in 2000 acted humanely and responsibly to stem the outflow of illegal migrants to Europe, has been replaced by unconscionable bandits and terrorists who have forcibly seized the instruments of state to facilitate human trafficking and illegal migration for their own material benefit.” Agency report
