African leaders have been urged to redirect their economy towards sustainable growth to attract investments and stop illegal migration vid teeming youths to Europe.This advice was given at a summit to discuss issues of migration for Africans which opened in Accra, Ghana.
The summit under the auspices of Journalists International forum for Migration, JIFORM, with the support of Nekotech Center of Excellence, Ghana 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.
In the words of Ajibola Abayomi,” 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 African Migration Summit (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.
THE JOURNALISTS COALITION
Journalists International Forum For Migration (JIFORM), a body with over 300 journalists covering migration matters spread across the continents.
JIFORM headquartered in Lagos in 2018, leading the advocacy against irregular migration, human trafficking and other migration menaces.
The organisation held the first International Migration conference in Abuja, Nigeria 2019 and 2020 in Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria using technology to connect members across the globe to adjust to the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic by combining both physical and virtual participation.
JIFORM is fulfilling its vision of annexing and developing media potentials having organized six different workshops and training for members apart from the annual international summit.
It launched a book titled Key Concepts In Migration, A Journalist’s Guide To Reporting as it’s contribution media’s development towards understanding the dynamics of migration.
The book is a collection of migration terminologies and other concepts to guide media professionals and establishments in the choice of words, migration governance, management and the migrants’ world.
Despite the increase in absolute numbers, the share of international migrants in proportion to the world’s population has remained relatively stable between 1990 and 2020 at around 2.8 to 3.6 per cent.
ILLEGAL MIGRATION AGONY
The agony of several African migrants in the Middle East being enslaved under the Kafala System is being witnessed in Lebanon, Yemen, Omani, Saudi Arabia and others.
Aside from this, gases have been noted that thousands of future African leaders perished on the Mediterranean Sea as a result of irregular migration.
In 2020 according to the United Nations out of about 3,101 migrants died.
THE MEDIA CHALLENGE
The summit was of the opinion that the media need to task the leaders to do more for the people.
media practitioners were enjoined to write objective and balanced stories on migration, encouraging the government to take the re-integration of returnees more seriously by providing psychological, mental and social support to reunite with their loved ones.
Journalists must provide the right information to encourage the people to embrace regular migration entirely as there is a lot to gain from it.
