Around the Web (Jan 4th, 2014) – Risky Migrant Boat Trips to Europe - My take!


SkyNEWS.com.au (Jan 4th, 2013) reports that ‘more than 1000 would-be migrants have been rescued from the Mediterranean Sea over the course of 24 hours’. This was according to figures given by the Italian Navy. Passengers came from countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, Iraq, Eritrea, Nigeria, Somalia, Zambia, Mali and other countries.

The BBC NEWS (Jan 3rd 2014) gave a similar report. It added that ‘Last October more than 400 people drowned in two shipwrecks near Lampedusa, which is the closest Italian territory to North Africa.’

My take:

Thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East take the treacherous and dangerous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe. They often do this on scrappy boats that are not sea-worthy and too often many pay the high price of losing their lives and/or that of their loved ones. There was a case of a parent who lost their 3 children in one of those trips. Many are fleeing civil conflicts and wars in their home countries. Others strive to escape economic hardships, poverty, famine, diseases and other disasters in their homeland. One of the survivors of such trips said that if he stays back home, chances are that he will die; if he undertakes the trip, chances are that he will die in the sea and he simply made the choice of taking the risk of the travel.

I noticed that among those rescued by the Italian navy were Nigerians. As a Nigerian, I find it disappointing to see that thousands of Nigerians undertake dangerous trips abroad in the hope of finding greener pastures. With the abundant natural resources that Nigerian has, it’s shameful that these resources have not been well harnessed to make the Nigerian economy buoyant enough to prevent such migration. Corruption, greed, selfishness, and other vices have prevented the ordinary Nigerian from benefiting from Nigeria’s wealth. Granted, not everyone who travels on such trips are necessarily in dire need and some could afford to manage a livelihood in their home countries, but the socioeconomic environment perpetuated by an inept and corrupt government lays the background for net migration out of countries like Nigeria. We can surely do better.

Migration from one part of the world to another is nothing new. Wikipedia.org reports on Ireland’s Great Famine: ‘[It] was a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration between 1845 and 1852’. Many of those migrants went to America and today, Irish Americans are now part of American’s history and culture. So, what we see and hear about the Mediterranean Sea trips echoes memories of times past. The common theme is hope.

Hope is what drives people across borders and continents. Hope of a better life and the hope of something different. Instead of dying of hunger, disease, abject poverty, deprivation, and war, many take the ever dangerous trips of illegal migration from their places of abode. I would not encourage anyone to take such trips, but am also in no place to question the character and motives of those undertaking them. Hope is what keeps them going. Hope is what keeps us going: the hope of a better place, a better life, a better tomorrow. You take that hope away, you take away everything.


©Dr Eugene’s Column (http://dreugeneojirigho.blogspot.com/)

©Dr Eugene’s Blogs (http://dreugeneoji.blogspot.com/)

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