Summers are deadly on the African coasts of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. It is the great wave of canoes that are storming the Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea in search of a hypothetical holy grail in the countries of Europe. More and more young people, women and men, coming from Senegal as from all other African countries, are boarding ships that are barely seaworthy, to try to join what decades of propaganda have presented to them as being heaven on earth. Blinded by their illusions, they are ready to brave all the dangers and face all the obstacles that stand in the way of their aspiration.

Westerners fear nothing more than what they see as a human tide ready to engulf them in their own lands. To prevent what some of their theorists present as « The Great Replacement » (which they were able to successfully implement on the American and Oceanic continents), European leaders decided to barricade their containment to prevent a new invasion, coming this time from the poverty-stricken hordes of the countries of the Global South.

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For this reason, they do not hesitate to move their borders even in the countries of the South. This is how the European Union undertook to convince the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ease Tunisia’s borrowing conditions, in order to enable it to revive its suffocating economy.  The quid pro quo for Mr. Kaïs Saïed’s power will be to prevent migrants from black Africa from reaching Europe from the coasts of his country. Likewise, the English government remains deaf and blind to any criticism of the regime of Rwandan leader Paul Kagame, with whom it has reached an agreement to extradite all asylum seekers who would like to join the United Kingdom.    Rishi Sunak’s government is prepared to make any compromises for this agreement to succeed, so that it can send back to Kigali all those who wish to find asylum on the banks of the Thames. Unfortunately, for the moment, this agreement has not yet been able to overcome the obstacles set up at the level of the House of Commons, the English Parliament.

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The consequences of all these obstacles are thousands of deaths and missing people at sea or in the desert. The cries of indignation and expressions of compassion from Africans and Westerners do not change much in the situation, and the images of corpses in the desert, or washed up by the sea, or even the prospect of being held hostage or reduced to slavery in certain countries on the Mediterranean coast, do not discourage candidates for departure.

Analysts and experts try to explain the phenomenon by questions of governance in our countries, mainly African, which leave no perspective for young people who are increasingly politically mature and aspiring to a better life. A beautiful explanation which, although having its share of truth, allows us to avoid the responsibility of Western countries in this tragedy.  We must not forget that visa constraints between Africa and Europeans have not always been rigid. At one time, Africans went to Europe just by presenting a passport. Those who wished to settle there then had to obtain a residence permit. However, we have not seen Africans storming airports and ports to reach Europe. As Europeans do, Africans went to the West and returned home quietly. We only mentioned canoes when talking about the boat people of South-East Asian countries.

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It was under the pretext of combating Middle Eastern terrorism that Jacques Chirac introduced the visa policy in France, and had it adopted by its European partners within the framework of the so-called Schengen agreement. This means that European nationals can, just by presenting their travel document, travel up and down our continent, even without reason. And Africans must endure the haughtiness and contempt of certain small officials in Western consular services, who look down upon them. 

The real fight to put an end to the images of these new boat people must be, for African leaders, to impose, by all means, a lifting of the visa obligation for nationals of African countries. For lack of anything better, try to obtain even reciprocity. When he came to power in 2012, President Macky Sall removed the visa requirement for certain categories of foreigners. This is because the procedures were too cumbersome to manage for our consular services, which were poorly prepared. The experience will have served to ensure that, if necessary, Senegal as well as other African countries impose visas on all countries that request them.

By Mohamed GUEYE / mgueye@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH