'Fortress Europe' harms Africa

The European Union’s decade-long crackdown on African migrants is just as appalling as US President Donald Trump’s draconian immigration policies, writes Adekeye Adebajo

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Europeans may be horrified by United States President Donald Trump’s draconian immigration policies, which include snatching people off the streets and deporting them without due process. But the European Union’s decade-long crackdown on irregular African migrants, who — fleeing conflict, climate disasters and poverty — attempt to reach Europe in flimsy boats, is equally appalling.

Worse, the European Commission seeks to double down on this approach: a leaked proposal for the next long-term budget cycle calls for conditioning development aid for African countries on meeting migration-reduction targets.

Africans comprise a fairly large share of the EU’s irregular migrants, with West and Central African countries accounting for about a third of those arriving in the first half of 2024. At least 11 million African-born migrants live in Europe — more than double the number living in Asia and North America — where they boost the labour force and ease economic pressures caused by a rapidly ageing local population.

But many Europeans treat irregular migrants as a security threat, criminalising their entry and scapegoating them for broader societal problems. After millions of Syrian, Afghan and Iraqi refugees fled to the bloc in 2015-16, the EU began strengthening “Fortress Europe”. Some countries, including Greece, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia, built external border fences, while others, like Germany and the Netherlands, have reintroduced border controls.

Efforts to secure the bloc have included violent pushbacks against refugees and migrants at external borders — a violation of international human rights law — and partnerships with third countries to curb flows.