Reversing the immigrants' flow

Germany and Italy are concerned about the continuous flow of immigrants departing from North Africa, particularly Libya. Since both are important members of the European Union, it is likely that the EU will formulate a new policy about the matter. Malta, too, is enduring logistical, institutional and financial burdens because of these people who are risking their lives in search of better prospects.

It was certainly a good idea for the Prime Minister, accompanied by the Deputy PM and the Foreign Minister, to go to Libya to discuss, among other topics, this serious and extremely delicate problem. The point is whether it could be feasible to repatriate illegal immigrants to Libya.

Germany and Italy are working together on the setting up of refugee camps in Libya but Malta appears to be tackling the problem on its own. Perhaps it would be better to co-ordinate a solution with these two larger EU members. It might also help Malta to place a better claim to host the new envisaged EU border control agency, thus aiming at two targets at once.

It seems that Libya, now making an effort to rejoin the international community after a long period of isolation and trade sanctions, is being asked to face the brunt of this new destabilising factor to Europe. To remain in the EU's good books, it may as well comply with the demands but it will certainly ask for the financial means and logistical support to fulfil its new obligations of stemming the flow of illegal migration.

Surprisingly, world institutions and organisations, including the EU, have agreed that the concept of globalisation, besides incorporating the free movement of capital and, up to a certain degree, of labour, takes into consideration non-economic subjects such as education, science, technology, tastes, etc., but does not contemplate the, albeit illegal, movement of people crossing international boundaries.

Illegal immigrants who risk their lives to reach European destinations generally come from African countries plagued with tribal strife, extreme poverty, and war within and across African countries. The legacy left by the colonial powers is certainly a black page in their history books.

This continent is made up of more than 50 independent countries. It speaks nearly a thousand different languages, and populated by under twice the 25 EU member states' population.

By 2020 Africa's population is expected to balloon to 1.3 billion. It can be divided in two major parts: one, the northern countries and the southern tip that have partially succeeded in making a breakthrough in economic terms and establish themselves on the world scene, and, two, all the other countries in between that, by and large, are encountering huge problems in all respects.

There are exceptions of course. Botswana, forming part of the second group, despite having only two people with any administrative experience at the time of its independence in 1966, succeeded in creating the educational infrastructure to meet its new needs.

This country has also made headway in industry, particularly through the export of diamonds. Being a landlocked country and having neighbouring countries that are not too accommodating, it found ways to get its goods to the market where there was the demand for them.

Whereas Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and other northern states as well as South Africa have tried to develop their natural resources and are fully aware of the importance of technology and education, the other countries in between are either being exploited or frittering their resources because of their ineptitude.

In the first instance, the second group of countries is being exploited because Western companies and China import huge amounts of raw materials from them. In fact, they are extremely rich in minerals: diamonds, gold, cobalt, oil. In addition, they have the best wild animal life that foreigners enjoy watching through organised safaris.

Unfortunately, many of their assets are exported as raw materials, at very low prices. Where the product is produced on site, like oil exploration in Nigeria, inefficiency rules the day; furthermore, it frequently happens that oil people are subjected to many tribal raids.

It appears that many African countries have failed to take off economically. Certainly, the blame cannot be placed on the people. In other areas, as a result of their willpower and determination, they did succeed in forging ahead, such as in sports.

In football, Cameroon and Nigeria make headlines. In the Athens Olympics ten African countries succeeded in winning, besides the silver and bronze, 50 gold medals.

The underlying reason for many of the African countries' economic plight is lack of leadership and foresight, too much involvement in political ideologies, and corruption. In such a situation the leaders do not have the time to go into the economic mechanism to generate national wealth. It has to be said as well that western democracies are not helping too much. Instead of contributing to their economic development, they are more interested in their natural resources.

It is no wonder that many African countries have remained not only below poverty levels established in Western democracies but rather at starvation levels. There are instances when people live in abandoned cars, where people are bought and sold for 25 dollars, where life expectancy has plunged to 33 years, and where AIDS is all-pervasive. It is estimated that over 80 per cent of world AIDS deaths take place in Africa.

Concerned with these appalling conditions, the industrialised countries are discussing the possibility of waiving the debt of the 33 poorest countries, most of them in Africa. It is no wonder that people coming from these countries flee their land for better pastures.

With the help of modern means of communication these people have come to understand that there are much better ways of making a living and raising families. It is not really difficult to understand that the number of displaced persons and people seeking refuge elsewhere has been estimated to have reached 25 million.

In the same way, the problem these people are creating in European countries, particularly Germany, Italy and Malta, is huge. This problem could be compounded if terrorists, camouflaged as illegal immigrants, mingle with these boat people to arrive at targeted destinations to achieve their aims of further mayhem.

Clearly, the solution to the problem of illegal immigrants is not the setting up of camps at the point of departure and repatriating these people.

A better approach would be for Western countries, which amassed wealth because they exploited Africa's raw materials, to return a fraction of their GDP by investing in their education, infrastructure and economies. Financial aid is not enough. Besides help, these countries need evolution of ideas and direction to stand on their own two feet.

Malta, at the crossroads of this flow of human activity, can contribute immeasurably to its solution and reverse it. It can raise political awareness of their needs rather than limit itself to the repatriation of illegal immigrants. In addition, it may usefully employ Malta's entrepreneurial skills to help these countries' economic development and, in the process, contribute to its own economic growth.

Dr Borda is an economist specialising the economic development of small states