Illegal Migration: Experts urge African leaders to boost investment
African leaders have been urged to redirect their economy towards sustainable growth to attract investments and stop illegal migration amid teeming youths to Europe.
This advice was given at the African Migration Summit (AMS) where issues of migration for Africans were discussed. The summit opened in Accra, Ghana under the auspices of Journalists International Forum for Migration (JIFORM) with the support of Nekotech Center of Excellence, Ghana which was attended by Journalists across Africa, International Migration agencies, Migration NGOs, Migration experts and academia.
Speaking at the Accra International Conference Centre, President Journalists International Forum for Migration, JIFORM, Ajibola Abayomi said African leaders must reset their economy to resuscitate local potentials needed.
Abayomi said, “there must be a conscious attempt to develop more brains on the continent, We need people to retain the technical skills from the various foreign investments to create more opportunities in our economy.
“Africa must embrace regulated migration to redirect the energies of its youths being misled into human trafficking, child labour and other deadly issues,” Ajibola stated.
The AMS was symbolic to the developments on the continent because migration has become a phenomenon defining local and international economies as every human being is a potential migrant.
According to him, “the summit was borne out of the desire to further reappraise migration policies and to galvanize Africa leaders to meet the expectation of Agenda 2068.”
Following the theme of this summit Labour Migration: “Shifting The Paradigm To Benefit Africa,” migration experts and guests stressed the fact that Africa cannot continue to live in the denial of unprecedented migration of teeming youths illegally to Europe as a result of the door economic and social realities in the continent.
As the population of migrants increase globally Africa must reorganize its principles to reap benefits associated with regular migration.
STATISTICS
According to the United Nations (UN), the estimated number of international migrants worldwide increased in the twenty years between 2000 and 2020, reaching 281 million in 2020.
This figure is up from 248 million in 2015, 220 million in 2010, 191 million in 2005 and 173 million in 2000. In the past two decades, the international migrant stock grew annually by an average of 2.4 per cent.
The growth rate increased to 2.5 per cent during the period 2015-2020 from 2.3 per cent between 2010 and 2015.
Suzan O/WTN
