“ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION”: THE WEST MUST FACE ITS RESPONSIBILITY, By McIntosh Zadi

This is a follow up of an investigation we have conducted since 2013 in the world of the now called “illegal migrants”. This work took us from England, Tunisia, the border Libya Morocco and to France. The people we talked to have similar stories. Life on the different roads (seas, lands) is described as “the road to hell”.
These people are from different backgrounds. But, they were not “economic refugees”. “I was a bank manager in my country, the Ivory Coast, before the 2010 political crisis that saw the inhibition of democracy by France in my country. I had never thought that I shall become a destitute refugee one day in my life. I have been in Morocco for three years after one year in Ghana. Should I go to France where the roots of my country’s problems are? Do i have a choice? At fifty-two, would I have the courage to go anywhere else where the language is not French? I do not know where the rest of my family is. I lost my wife during the conflict.” said Mr. Konan Dominique (a nickname used as he thinks that the Ivorian current rulers are after him). This type of story is popular among the people from different countries that we met and interviewed. There are farmers, shepherds, footballers, students and professional politicians. The countries where they landed do not offer them another option than to leave for a new destination. In Tunisia for example, sub-Sahara Africans have only three (3) months to live there without a visa. The Africa Union Laws do not protect them. Therefore, after the sabbatical period of three months, they are subjected to a monthly penalty of 80 Dinars and this must be paid whether they work or not. Mr. Moussa an Ivorian shopkeeper is prison for opening a restaurant in Tunis.
At the Tunisian frontier with Libya, we met Syrian and sub-Sahara African men, children and pregnant women struggling to reach the areas where their journey for the “promised land” (Europe) starts. They live in filthy subway houses. They are packed like banana boxes destined for the European market. They luck the basic food for survival. According to Joseph M’Bala, a Congolese, people do die from stampede, thirst and hunger. He claimed that during his presence of two months, he has witnessed more than ten (10) deaths. Lapazy, Yves Daly and Daouda Konate are three men we met during our investigation. Unfortunately, they are among eighty migrants whose boat capsized in July just after our departure from Tunisian-Libyan border.
For the lucky ones who crossed the sea to reach Europe, life is not easy as they thought. But, they believe that “it is better to be a street cleaner in a foreign land than being in jail or dead on your own soil for your political view or simply because you belong to the same tribe with a particular leader”. This statement is the same from Congoleses, Ivorians, Zimbabweans to Syrians we met in Tunisian-Libyan border in July 2015.
There is a second category of migrants. These persons have been in Europe for some months or years. They applied for asylum. Their cases, in general are being dealt with. But, their feel stuck at one point. They cannot work; neither can they go to school because the country laws say so. Miss Abla Cynthia Lida said over the phone: “despite the fact that my father is being moved from prison to prison by the current dictators backed by France and knowing that I am a political activist and that political opponents’ children are indiscriminately sent to jail by Alassane Dramane Ouattara in my country, the British immigration authorities do not believe that my life is in a great danger. I may not pass the airport in Abidjan.” For Mr. Souleymane Diaby, life is also complicated. He is a Muslim from the north of the Ivory Coast. But, according to him, his friends and some close family members see him as a traitor. For these people, he said, he made the wrong choices for being a member of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) instead RDR (Alassane Dramane Ouattara’s party) and he married a woman from President Laurent Gabo’s tribe (Bété). We tried in vain to locate his parents in the Ivory Coast. Our team has worked on the ground since May 2015 and no traces of his parents were found.
We met so many people in England that we cannot mention all of them. It worth saying that the wars backed by some European nations through the rest of the world is dragging people from their home lands for a save oasis elsewhere. Africa is once again, losing its crop to Europe. We have Mr. Amadou Tangara and Mr. Tiamiyu Hamed Aderele who were forced to leave their country for their lives. Young mothers like Koko Ella Estelle Zamati were also forced to run for their lives. The crime committed? They are members of the political party they trust, the Ivorian Popular Front.
The “illegal migrants” as one can see, did not leave their countries because they were poor; some do come to Europe for a better life, but the truth is the European nations have to admit their guilt. They back wars in the Ivory Coast, RD Congo, in Syria where they gave ammunitions to “the less extremists” and elsewhere. Boko Haram is thriving after the propaganda of “Give our girls back” that died off where it started from. There is no security; innocent tourists got killed in Tunisia and elsewhere because of Europe’s wrong political choices. Europe must fundamentally free its former colonies. Europe must not control the leadership of the developing countries. Backing dictators will send more migrants to Europe as it is a case survival.

Une contribution de McIntosh Zadi