BNP IMMIGRATION BULLETIN
JANUARY 8, 2007

British National Party
www.bnp.org.uk



1. BRITAIN STRUGGLES TO COPE WITH IMMIGRATION WAVE

http://worldpoliticswatch.com/article.aspx?id=451

Manchester, England -- In this gritty northern city once famous for its
textile exports, two bus companies have had their operating licenses
suspended for employing Polish drivers who cannot read English road
signs. In the Romanian capital of Bucharest, a new bus station opened
this week to cater for yet more people keen to travel to Eastern
Europe's favorite destination.

As both Romania and Bulgaria became the European Union's newest members
on Jan. 1, Britain braced for a new wave of immigration.
After the EU expanded eastwards in 2004, the London government
hopelessly miscalculated the number of likely economic migrants looking
for a better income in Britain than at home. Government agencies
anticipated 13,000 people a year but now concede that about 600,000 East
Europeans -- the majority Poles -- arrived in Britain between 2004 and
2006.

The government claims that most have taken jobs the British don't want
to do, but evidence is emerging that cost-cutting companies are
employing foreigners in place of native labor. And critics argue that
the country's infrastructure and social fabric is being undermined by
the biggest wave of immigration since the Roman legions arrived over
2,000 years ago.

According to the independent watchdog Migrationwatch UK, Britain is now
receiving an immigrant a minute. Although the British government claims
the critics are scaremongering, it has quietly been spending almost
$600,000 on an advertising campaign in Romania and Bulgaria urging
people to say put after their countries join the EU. And for the first
time London has imposed work restrictions on EU countries -- barring
Romanians and Bulgarians from working in Britain without a permit.
However, there is no restriction on entry and many are expected to enter
and work illegally.

The chairman of Migrationwatch and former ambassador to Saudi Arabia,
Sir Andrew Green, said the government has begun reducing asylum
admissions but added: ‘As a result of their 'no limits' policy,
immigration as a whole has shot up. We now have a migrant arriving in
the U.K. almost every minute -- and these are just the legal ones we
know about.’

Migrationwatch says the large inflows from Eastern Europe account for
only about one in five foreign immigrants, while most of the rest came
from Asia and Africa.

‘They [the British government] have been trying their best to obscure
what is really happening by pretending that this mass immigration is a
success, even though it is the result of government miscalculation and
neglect,’ said Green. ‘But the strains in terms of schools, health and
housing refuse to go away -- not to mention the impact on the employment
prospects of British people as the unemployment numbers steadily
increase. These are conveniently airbrushed out of the picture.’

Migrationwatch, which includes the professor of demography at Oxford
University, David Coleman, among its advisers, says it is not opposed to
genuine refugees. But in a statement on its Web site the group argues
that ‘nowadays they comprise only about 10 percent of those who arrive
in Britain each year.’

Migrationwatch says current trends and official statistics indicate that
Britain faces a net inflow of non-EU migrants totaling 2 million per
decade.

Non-government organizations say the country, already the second most
crowded in Europe after the Netherlands, cannot cope with such numbers
and it could lead to a failure of integration and damage to the
country's cultural and social fabric.

Demand for visas to enter Britain has gone up by more than 30 percent in
the last five years and is now touching 2.5 million a year.

Migrationwatch and government figures show that Britain has 2.5 million
people whose first language is not English. The Commission for Racial
Equality is on record as saying Britain is ‘sleepwalking to
segregation.’

The warnings are particularly alarming given the growth of Britain's
Muslim population and signs of political disaffection by a new
generation born in Britain to immigrant parents. In 2006, the name
Mohammed was listed at 22nd in the country's roll call of most popular
newborn boys' names -- way above Michael.

A traditional weather vane of public opinion, the British national
press, seems divided on the issue of immigration. The brash tabloid
Daily Express newspaper this week ran a headline asking ‘Why are we
giving away our country?’ and railed against an immigration policy it
said ‘looks like an attack on our way of life.’ But The Times welcomed
Romania and Bulgaria into the EU and suggested that Britain could
benefit from a migration of farm labor and skilled doctors and nurses
from the two countries.

However, evidence has emerged that Poles, for example, are being hired
by construction companies in the greater London region because they
accept lower wages than skilled British builders. One reputable company
that employs only British labor told The Times it was being undercut in
contract tendering by companies using cheap imported labor.

Poles have migrated to Britain in huge numbers and signs in Polish have
sprung up in most major cities. In Manchester, two bus companies
employing 100 Polish drivers were ordered off the roads at the end of
December by a government traffic commissioner after a series of serious
accidents thought to be related to language problems and lack of
training.

Migationwatch's Green has said: ‘Language is absolutely vital to
integration. It is a serious indictment of multiculturalism that we
should now find that we have one million of working age who need help
with their English.’

The government has said it believes that immigration benefits the
national economy. Immigrationwatch agrees but adds the caveat that with
rising population costs the benefits to the host population are small, a
matter of a few cents per person a week.

Green's group also says that against the benefits there is disturbing
large-scale population change. In the last decade, it claims, 600,000
Londoners have left the city to be replaced by 700,000 immigrants.

‘This is changing the whole nature of London and other major cities.
This outflow of people is higher from boroughs with large ethnic
minorities.’

The Commission for Racial Equality recently expressed concern that a
number of major British cities will be reduced to a minority white
population by 2016.

But the London-based independent Joint Council for the Welfare of
Immigrants recently produced a report alleging that British immigration
policy was unfair and discriminated against the poor from non-EU
countries The Council says Britain should ‘be promoting a system that
facilitates migration from the global south, and the effective
integration of these migrants into UK society through guaranteeing a
minimum level of rights for them, such as a route to settlement, family
reunion, and employment protection.’

This idea seems not to suit at least some native Britons. The Guardian
national newspaper reported at the end of 2006 it had discovered that
the anti-immigration nationalist British National Party is beginning to
attract respectable middle class members, including businesspeople, as
it bids to shake off its image of being an extremist, Nazi-like
street-rabble organization. The BNP currently holds only a few dozen
local government council seats across the country -- mainly in areas of
high immigrant populations -- but is said to be bidding to win places on
the Greater London Assembly and even parliament.

But as foreigners queue to move into Britain, an increasing number of
British are moving out. According to the National Statistics Office,
120,000 British citizens emigrated in 2004 and another 198,000 in 2005.
Australia, Spain and France were the top destinations.






2. INDIANS SUE BRITISH GOV’T TO STAY IN BRITAIN

Some Indians were admitted to this country under rules that were later
changed, and they are suing our government to remain here. We don’t
expect them to like it, but they need to accept that we don’t owe them
residence here any more than they owe us the right to live in India. As
for the policy being ‘racist’, India itself has racially discriminatory
immigration policies (documented here:
http://www.vdare.com/pb/060502_vanderbilt.htm)

Main story:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Indian_workers_take_British_govt_to_c
ourt_over_racist_rules/articleshow/1026865.cms

RSS Feeds| SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

LONDON: An estimated 30,000 Indians who left the mother country to work
in Britain on the Highly
Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) have begun the fraught task of taking
the UK government to court for
its allegedly racist new immigration policies.

The UK, which allowed the Indians into the country under the
four-year-old scheme on the understanding
that they would work and probably settle here, is accused of changing
the rules of disenfranchise
coloured economic migrants arbitrarily and without warning.

Britain's new, strict HSMP rules, which officially came into force on
December 5, will force Indians and
other South Asians to leave the country because they no longer fit the
highly-skilled migrant category. The
new rules disenfranchise potential non-European migrants over 28 years
old and earning UK salaries
less than £35,000, say the affected Indians, British immigration lawyers
and immigration campaigners.

Amit Kapadia of the newly-formed HSMP Forum that represents those
affected by the changed rules told
TOI on Tuesday ‘most Indians will no longer be eligible to stay on in
Britain under the HSMP because
the government is clearly trying to remove migrants like us. They
unfairly say you will only qualify if
you are younger and better paid even though the average Indian
highly-skilled migrant can reasonably
be expected to be over 28 years old’.

He added, more in sorrow than in anger, ‘What is the difference between
these people (the British
authorities) and Idi Amin, who threw Indians out of Uganda one morning?’


Rhian Benyon of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI),
an independent voluntary
organisation campaigning for justice and combating racism in immigration
and asylum law, told TOI,
‘Britain's reform of its system of economic migration creates a
definite, if indirect racial disadvantage
for Indians and others from non-European Economic Area countries’.

The JCWI is just days away from launching a massive political and public
information campaign against the
new rules.

The changed HSMP rules are the third in a series of stringent changes to
immigration policy, making
Indians unwelcome in the UK. In April, Britain suddenly announced
migrants would need to have lived
here five years instead of four to qualify for permanent residence. A
few months later, it barred
Indian and other non-European doctors from arriving to study and work
here. By year-end, it changed HSMP
rules. The first two changes to immigration rules are already mired in
legal challenges.

The new rules may come under judicial review once the Indians' case is
filed at the High Court in London.
But when and if that happens, a verdict is not expected for several
months. Chris Randall, chair of
the Immigration Law Practitioner's Association (ILPA) representing 1,200
barristers, solicitors and
advocates across Britain, told TOI, the case might be a challenging one.


At least 49,000 migrants are expected to be affected by the new rules,
of which at least 60 per cent are
Indian and the majority of the rest Pakistani and Bangladeshi.

In a sign of the seriousness of the situation for Indians, officials of
the Indian High Commission have
met those affected by the new rules. The High Commission is understood
to be keen to lobby the
British Home Office and Foreign Office for a fairer immigration policy
that does not disenfranchise
Indians and other Commonwealth nationals.

The new rules have already drawn fierce criticism from ILPA, which asked
- and was peremptorily refused - a
request to meet immigration minister Liam Byrne last month, warned that
the new rules with the deeply
unfair points system could prevent even high-profile entrepreneurs such
as Steve Jobs, co-founder and chief
executive of Apple Computer, from qualifying for the right to work here.


The new rules would stop talented individuals from entering the country
while migrants already here ‘will
not now qualify to extend their leave to remain (in a move that was)
unfair and unreasonable’.

But the minister insisted the government had no reason to consult widely
with affected stakeholders. He said
‘We have made these changes in order to make sure that the people who
succeed under the programme are those
who will make the greatest contribution to the UK economy, to make the
requirements clearer and more
objective and to make sure that the programme is robust against abuse.’

The JCWI said Britain's hardline new immigration policy with respect to
non-EEA nationals was part of a
larger plan that factors in ‘an expanded European Union (of 27
countries) and the belief that Europe
should now be the reservoir of all labour market requirements’.

It added that Britain's new immigration rules for ‘all non-EEA
nationals, including those from the developing
world, wishing to immigrate for work and study, is in danger of
replicating the racial injustice which is a
feature of our socially unjust planet with its huge gaps in
international wealth and development.’

It said Britain was being hypocritical in insisting it would make all
its laws non-discriminatory but leaving
immigration law outside the purview of this.






3. First coachload of Bulgarians arrive

http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=OM432660G&news_headline=first_c
oachload_of_bulgarians_arrive

The first bus-load of Bulgarians heading to Britain for work arrived in
London this
morning and spoke of their joy at being in the country.

The 50 on board were in the first small wave of the tens of thousands of
migrants predicted to flood to the
UK after the poor Eastern European country and its neighbour Romania
became the newest members of
the EU on New Year's Day.

After a gruelling two-day coach journey across the continent, they were
remarkably cheerful, laughing and joking as they unloaded their bags at
Victoria
coach station in central London before dawn today.

Many were heading north or south-west to low-paid jobs on flower farms,
but said
they were happy to have the chance to earn wages several times higher
than they
could at home.

University graduate Valentina Staykova, 25, from Plovdiv, said: ‘I'm
very happy
to be here. I've come to work picking flowers on a farm in Lincolnshire.

‘I will earn £5 an hour. In Bulgaria you would be lucky to get £3,000 in
six
months.

‘I have a good education but I don't mind doing manual work because the
money is
good. I plan to stay for maybe three years and save up to go back to
college.’

Around a dozen of the passengers were exchange students from an
agricultural
college near Plovdiv who were on their way to a six-month stint on a
flower farm
in Cambourne in Cornwall.

Officially they are here to gain experience in farming, but some
admitted they
did not know how much they would be paid for picking stems and feared
they might
be exploited.

Miroslav Boshnakov, 23, said: ‘There's not enough people to work on
farms here,
so they get students from abroad.

‘We are coming for six months to get experience, but I don't know how
much we'll
learn picking flowers. We will get paid according to how much we
produce, so I
don't know how much I will actually get.’

However his classmates were more optimistic. Dobroslava Bolpacheva, 27,
said:
‘It's my first time in Britain and I'm looking forward to it.

‘What we will get paid is big money compared to home, so it's a great
opportunity. ‘

Former retail manager Nick Miglenski, 37, spent six years in Chicago
studying
for an MBA before returning to Bulgaria for two years. He then decided
to move
here.

He said: ‘I've come to London hoping to study and work. Maybe I will
stay for a
year or two and maybe study for another masters degree part-time.

‘As EU citizens, now we can work as self-employed or part-time if we are
students.

‘Joining Europe is a big thing for my country. We have been waiting 15
years and
we deserve it. I believe there is a kind of discrimination against us
because
the Polish can come here and work freely, but there are restrictions on
us.

‘I understand the British public are worried, but they shouldn't because
there
are thousands of jobs here and British people don't want to do them.
They are
happy on social security.

‘Because I have studied business, I'd like to get some kind of
managerial job,
and I would like to earn £1,200 to £1,500 a month.

‘It's a lot more than at home where it's more like £300 although the
cost of
living is three or four times cheaper over there.

‘This is my first time in London and it's a fantastic city with great
opportunities. I've one or two friends here who will help me settle in.’

Mr Miglenski is from Burgas on the Black Sea. His brother Georgi Drazov,
47,
said there are much better opportunities for highly-skilled workers than
in the
poverty-stricken former communist-bloc state.

He said: ‘My qualifications are very specialised, maintaining computer
processors for industry. It's a specific industry that's not big in
Bulgaria. I
came here because there's much more opportunity for careers in London.

‘We've got a friend who will help us find a house and then we will start
looking
for work. In the beginning I will have to take any job I can get. But I
want to
improve my English and update my qualifications, then hopefully I will
get a job
in the industry.’

Speaking with his brother as an interpreter, he added: ‘The best thing
about
coming to England is not working for £5 an hour, it's the chance to
study and
improve your skills. Now we're EU citizens we pay the same fees as
English
people, which is five or six times cheaper than non-EU students. That's
a big
advantage.’

Nick added: ‘Freedom of movement is a very important part of the EU and
I think
I should have the right to go anywhere I like.

‘There are lots of negative stories in the papers about us coming here,
but
people should not worry because there are only seven million Bulgarians
compared
to 40 million Poles and anyway, most people I know who want to work
abroad are
going to Greece, Italy or Spain because there is more sunshine and the
culture
is more like ours.

‘I think it's good for Britain and it's just like Spain a few years ago.
Lots of
Spanish people came to Britain to work, but then thousands of British
moved to
Spain. There are 10,000 British in Bulgaria already, so it's a two-way
thing.
Bulgaria is a beautiful place and soon it will be the Florida of
Europe.’





4. FINLAND STARTS REPATRIATING ASYLUM SEEKERS

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Finland+to+start+repatriating+people+to
+Afghanistan+and+possibly+Iraq/1135224073410

The Directorate of Immigration says that it will start repatriating
asylum-seekers to Afghanistan and possibly to Iraq. The policy change is
likely to mean that dozens - and possibly even hundreds - of asylum
seekers will be denied temporary residence permits and will have to
leave Finland.

Finland has not returned anyone to Afghanistan or Iraq for years,
because officials have considered such repatriations to be technically
impossible, owing to a lack of reliable flight connections to the
countries in question, for instance.

Finland has granted one-year temporary residence permits to Afghan and
Iraqi asylum-applicants, who were not seen to be in need of asylum
protection, but whose repatriation was not considered technically
feasible.

The police gave the Directorate of Immigration two statements late last
year, according to which repatriation to the Afghan capital Kabul and to
the Arbil area in the Kurdish region in the north of Iraq has now become
technically possible.

The Directorate of Immigration has already changed its policy line
concerning Afghanistan, and has given five Afghan asylum-seekers a
negative decision. The decisions can still be appealed.

‘Afghan applicants will probably not be granted temporary residence
permits, if conditions in their country stay as they are’, says Esko
Repo, head of the Directorate's asylum unit.

Repo estimates that Finland might turn back 60 - 70 Afghan applicants
this year, if the numbers of applicants develop as anticipated.

Afghans who are in Finland on temporary residence permits could also
face expulsion if they have not established other reasons to remain in
Finland. Last year 104 Afghan citizens were given one-year residence
permits in the January-November period. In 2005 the figure was 66.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees places a
number of restrictions on repatriations to Afghanistan, but is not
completely opposed to sending people back to that country. Repo says
that decisions made by the Directorate of Immigration are based on very
fresh information, as an investigator from the Directorate visited
Afghanistan in the autumn on a fact-finding tour.

‘However, one must keep in mind that it is never possible to know what
might happen in the future. The situation in Somalia shows how quickly
things can change’, Repo points out.

Repatriation to Afghanistan is not exceptional on a global scale. In the
European Union, at least Denmark, Germany, Austria and the UK have
already done so. However, Sweden currently does not send people back to
Afghanistan.

Repo also believes that it is possible that Finland will start sending
people back to the Kurdish region in Northern Iraq. The UNHCR says that
under certain circumstances, repatriations to southern or central areas
of Iraq would be possible, but Finland is not doing so now.

The Directorate of Immigration would have repatriated 77 Iraqi asylum
seekers in January-November last year, if the police had been able to
implement the decisions. Instead, they were given temporary residence
permits.

The Directorate of Immigration will decide in the coming months if it
plans to start repatriations this year.

‘It is too early to say anything certain because of the fate of Saddam
Hussein, as well as other events. We are following the situation to the
very end before drawing conclusions’, Repo promises.

Sweden and Norway have already returned people to Iraq. Finnish police
say that those repatriations have proceeded without any great problems.




5. GOV'T LETS SMUGGLED ALIENS STAY IN BRITAIN

http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID
=1955424


The Government must sign a European Convention which grants victims of
human trafficking the right to stay in Britain temporarily, the
Conservative Party has said.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said the move was vital for ‘moral
reasons’ to protect people exploited by trafficking gangs.
Despite his party's previous opposition to signing the European
Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings, Mr Davis said
he was confident it would not attract more immigrants to Britain.

The Government has so far refused to join the agreement, which grants
victims of human trafficking at least 30 days to recover from their
ordeal and reflect on whether they will help police.

Mr Davis said: ‘There is something the Government should do tomorrow and
that is sign the European Convention against trafficking.

‘The Government has avoided doing this – I don't really understand why.

‘I do not believe that by giving civilised treatment to the victims of
this trade – allowing 30 days' reflection whilst they are ready to go
and become witnesses – that that will actually be a pull factor. Just
the reverse.’

Mr Davis said other measures which should be taken immediately include
setting up a helpline for victims and increasing the number of safe
houses for people rescued from trafficking,.

He also repeated the Tories' intention to create a new border police
force to reduce the number of people entering the UK illegally.
He said: ‘It is now 200 years since William Wilberforce saw the end of
the slave trade in the UK. It is past time that we brought this evil
trade to an end.
‘It is a high priority for a moral reason.’

He said the problem of trafficking involved thousands of people brought
to the UK under false pretences to work in the sex trade or for
gangmasters and other exploitative employers.

According to estimates there were 4,000 victims of trafficking in
prostitution in the UK during 2003. Another estimate put the figure at
10,000 in London and the Midlands alone, he added.

However, there have been only 30 convictions for trafficking from 2004
to last year.
Immigration minister Liam Byrne said: ‘The UK fully supports the
multiple aims of the convention and participated actively in the
negotiations.

‘The Home Secretary is at present giving the matter his fullest
consideration and will be writing to colleagues in Government in the
near future. There are no time limits within which signature must take
place.’
Tim Hancock, of Amnesty International, said: ‘We hope the Government
will be minded to sign up to the European Convention Against Trafficking
without delay.’






6. EUROPE THE 'PROMISED LAND' FOR AFRICANS

http://allafrica.com/stories/200701040880.html

The last summer has seen a surge in immigration to mainland Europe form
some African countries. While European leaders are attempting to stop
the wave, Tope Akinwande points to the hypocrisy of massive farm
subsidies received by European farmers and the trade policies that make
it impossible for African agriculture sectors to survive.

Like their other fellow members of the human race, Africans have
migrated since the dawn of history. They have moved in response to
demographic, economic, political and related factors [1]. In recent
times, there has been a spotlight on African immigration to European
countries. As the legal requirements for entry into Europe become
stricter and more cumbersome and as opportunities of a decent livelihood
shrinks in sub-Saharan Africa, its people have resorted to desperate
means in order to gain access to what is generally considered to be the
‘Promised Land’ for many Africans outside Europe. This has been ever
more apparent in west Africa, where young people travel through deserts,
stow away in ships, and employ all sorts of means in order to reach
Europe.

How did this situation arise? In the 1960s and the beginning of the
1970s, Africa's future looked bright. It was the post-independence
‘self-determination’ era laden with all sorts of opportunities; almost
all of the agricultural-based African economies could meet the needs of
its people. An average African had no cause to risk their life by
travelling in a desperate fashion to Europe when their basic needs could
be met in their country of origin.

Africans who ventured to Europe for further studies were in a hurry to
return to their countries of origin as prestigious and lucrative jobs
with all the accompanying benefits awaited them. Afterwards, they only
travelled to the western world for business and leisure. The few African
students who stayed back in Europe were considered as failures who could
not find their feet back home.

However, things have taken a dramatic turn for the worse. Africans and
especially west Africans - probably because of the coastal closeness to
Europe - are the new ‘Boat People’ fleeing abject poverty occasioned by
lack of opportunities in their countries of origin. They are constantly
in the international spotlight either being rescued by European coast
guards, attended to by tourists or having their bloated bodies
occasionally washed to the shores.

In the summer of 2006 - summer is said to be the preferred travel time
as the sea is supposedly calmer - it was almost a daily occurrence to
see demeaning images of tired and hopelessly-looking African men and
women rescued by European coast guards after risking their lives to get
to the Spanish Canary Islands. They used make-shift boats to negotiate
the treacherous waves of the Mediterranean Sea with the aim of escaping
poverty back home [2].

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), and the
United Nations Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 27,000 illegal
immigrants have turned up in 2006 on the Spanish Canary Island off the
west African coast.

While the rescued sojourners are considered to be ‘fortunate’ to have
stepped onto the shores of Europe despite the excruciating difficulties
awaiting them, many Africans are not lucky enough to be intercepted
mid-sea by coast guards. They perish with their desperate dreams. So far
in 2006, the Spanish coast guard has accounted for 500 bodies found in
the ocean around the Canaries.

Origin of the problem

Compared to the 1960s and early 1970s, Africa's growth performance in
the 80s and 90s has been very bad. The 1980s have been described as a
‘lost decade’ [3], while the children of that era and the 1990s have
been famously tagged the ‘wasted generation’ by the Nigerian Nobel
Laureate, Wole Soyinka.

Despite the strong belief held by many Africa analysts that the economic
woes of Africa are rooted in its ‘largely documented history’ of
colonialism which culminated in a façade called ‘independence’ and the
Cold War which institutionalised despotism, kleptocracy, and big-man
politics, the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) imposed by the
World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), have made it
impossible for African countries to meet the basic needs of their
people.

Introduced in the 1970s to galvanise the economies of African countries,
following the decline in the prices of agricultural products, SAP came
with tough conditionalities such as privatisation, wage freezes,
privatisation, elimination of price controls and lifting of trade
barriers.

Instead of encouraging economic development, SAPs created a new
phenomenon of Heavily Indebted Poor Countries who could not meet the
basic needs of their people.

In its 22 June 2006 edition, The Economist in its characteristic
sanctimonious manner posited that ‘rich countries have been generous
lately, with extra aid and debt relief, giving many struggling economies
a breath of air. By the end of last year, 29 countries, 25 of them in
Africa, had had their debt burden eased...’ The magazine goes on to
wonder if ‘...Africa, often dubbed the hopeless continent, (is) finally
taking off?’ [4] For once, a magazine that has carelessly dubbed Africa
as a ‘Hopeless Continent’ conceded that ‘Africa itself deserves the
credit for the upswing ‘of its economy in the past year’ [5].

Like most of its counterparts in the international media, what ‘The
Economist’ failed to acknowledge is that the dividends of the so-called
debt relief are easily drowned by one phenomenon - the international
trade policies of the ‘generous’ industrial nations it was talking
about. The debt relief issue is like giving something out with the left
hand and taking it back with the right hand.

In March 2005, the British government, who has been in the forefront of
the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPCI), published a
detailed report of the £1.7bn it gave to agricultural companies as
subsidies. At the same time, the US -though planning to reduce its
subsidies to American farmers by 5 percent - gave about $9bn [6].

How on earth would African farmers compete with their European and
American counterparts on the world food market? Would African
governments whose national budgets are sometimes smaller than the
subsidies western farmers receive be able to subsidise their farmers to
‘even the scores’? They will have to face incessant unrest at home while
the rest of their citizens ‘hit the road’ or set off for European
coasts.

Oumar Hamadoun Dicko, Foreign Affairs Minister of Mali, could not have
been more precise on the causes of the recent wave of immigration of
west Africans: ‘Immigration is going to continue unless we address
fundamental issues like the unequal terms of trade,’ he says. ‘African
farmers can't compete and are out of world markets,’ he concludes in a
recent interview with United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs [7]. He surely knows what he is talking about since
Mali's cotton farmers have been greatly affected by the subsidies
enjoyed by their western counterparts.

According to the Malian Foreign Affairs Ministry, 4 million, or over a
third of Mali's 11.7 million people are currently out of the country
[8]. It is noteworthy that the majority of these Malian emigrants are
from Kayes, the main cotton-producing area of the country. They have had
to leave their cotton farms to try their luck in Europe.

Monies remitted by this large Malian Diaspora have been vital in meeting
the needs that the government has been unable to meet. Many Malians in
the Diaspora are building schools, dispensaries, and other amenities in
their regions. The Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs concedes that
annual Malian Diaspora remittance exceeds 200 million US Dollars, which
is more than half of the country's export earnings.

While a lot of talks have been going on about agricultural subsidies as
the main international trade policies that have hampered trade and
development in Africa, it is interesting to know that there are many
other types of subsidies such as ‘fishing subsidies’ that have not made
life easier for developing countries.

Recently, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) accused Japan of paying
the highest subsidies to its national fishing industry at $US2-billion
dollars. The report also indicated that the 15-member European Union,
China, and the United States are leading underwriters [9]. These
governments give their farmers and fishing companies subsidies in the
form of grants, loans and loan guarantees, equity infusions, tax
preferences, and price or income support.

Thiaroye-Sur-Mer is a fishing town a few kilometres from Dakar, the
capital of Senegal. A few years ago and up till the end of 2005, one
could see hundreds of fishermen - both young and old - selling fish to
locals and large-scale buyers from Dakar and elsewhere. Today,
Thiaroye-Sur-Mer has almost become a ghost town as almost all the
younger fishermen have all taken to the seas; this time not to fish but
to try their luck in Spain's Canary Islands. They sold their means of
livelihood (boats, fishing nets, etc) and bought a one-way ticket on a
boat to a supposed better future in Europe.

Like many sub-Saharan African countries, Senegal has been going through
an excruciating SAP that has completely destroyed its economy. Its main
source of income - groundnut - is no longer well-priced on the
international market as many substitutes have been derived. Senegal's
fishing industry is losing its momentum as the country has been
inundated with subsidised food, including fish from Europe and Asia,
making it impossible for local fishermen to sell their wares at a decent
rate and meet the basic needs of their families. The only way for these
young Senegalese fishermen to survive and meet the needs of their
families is by trying their luck in Europe. This has become a way of
life in a country where monies remitted by the Senegalese Diaspora
sometimes accounts for 90 percent of income in many households.

Which way forward?

With the recent wave of immigration to the Spanish Canary Island,
European governments, led by Spain, have been trying to curb the
immigration of Africans who are willing to risk their lives to reach
Europe at all costs.

The incidents of September and October 2005 where Spanish coast guards
opened fire on ill-equipped boats full of African immigrants led to the
adoption of the ‘Rabat Declaration’ on 11 July 2006 by 57 European and
African countries. The Declaration enjoined the 57 signatory countries
to set up an action plan that will get to the core of the problem.

In September 2006, the European Union promised to provide Mali with
US$542 million over five years to control the emigration of its
citizens. Mali is expected to use the money to start various projects
aimed at discouraging young people from emigrating.

International NGOs are also trying to encourage young Africans to stay
back in their countries. For example, the Spanish Red Cross has embarked
on an awareness campaign in Senegal to demystify the notion of success
attached to emigration. They are emphasizing the harsh realities.

African celebrities have also thrown themselves into the fray. One of
the most successful African singers, Senegalese Youssou N'Dour is
lending his notoriety and voice to the anti-emigration campaign. In
collaboration with IOM and other well-known Senegalese musicians, he has
recorded a single titled ‘Emigration’ where he enjoined the youth not to
abandon their country. One thing missing in this beautiful and groovy
record is that Youssou N'Dour forgot to suggest alternatives to
Senegalese and African youth.

Can these initiatives work? Since all the aforementioned initiatives,
there have been cases of African boat people arriving in Spain and as
recent as September 2006 in Malta, thus exasperating the government of
the tiny country that has just joined the European Union.

As one route is being blocked, Africans perfect their ‘travelling
techniques’. On 20 November 2006 Europa Press Agency reported how 1,293
west Africans, braving a very harsh winter, arrived in Spain' s Canary
island with many of them using well-built fishing vessels. They also
travelled with enough provisions (food, winter clothing, etc. ) to see
them through their journey of death. Interestingly, some immigrants
devise or go back to the old routes, probably thinking that immigration
authorities' would have shifted focus away from them.

Conclusion

As I had indicated earlier on, there are a lot of initiatives to curb
illegal immigration with the latest one being the first Ministerial
Conference on Migration and Development between EU and the entire
African continent slated for 22 and 23 November 2006. One of the
expected outcomes of the Conference was the establishment of a framework
for a joint collaboration between Europe and Africa to curb illegal
immigration. The framework will consider major causes of immigration
such as economic integration and development.

When one considers the impact of the remittances made by African
immigrants - both legal and illegal - to their national economies and
how it is being sadly flaunted and praised as an alternative to foreign
earnings, it is not foolhardy to wonder if African politicians are
really sincere and keen on curbing the flow of their citizens to the
west. Why should they bother when the emigration of their citizens
‘relieves’ them of the headache of sourcing funds to embark on
development projects such as building of schools, hospitals, roads, etc.
? If they genuinely work towards stopping them from emigrating, what
alternatives do they have for farmers who cannot sell their produce?
Have they got any alternatives for young graduates and school leavers
they are churned out in millions into joblessness and despair?

It is noteworthy that while African politicians are silently grateful
for the ‘subsidies’ they get from their citizens in the Diaspora,
western politicians are not keen on stopping the subsidies they give to
their citizens as their national interest and particularly political
survival in their respective countries depends on keeping their farmers
and citizens happy.

As long as this political deadlock is not broken, the west and Europe in
particular, should be prepared to receive more and more people.

• Tope Akinwande is a Desk Officer at the West Africa Department of
TEARFUND, a leading UK relief and development NGO working in partnership
with Christian agencies and churches in over 70 countries to tackle the
causes and effects of poverty. His views do not necessarily reflect
those of TEARFUND.

• Please send comments to editor@... or comment at
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