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King Mohammed VI delivered a speech on Wednesday at the 5th African Union European Union summit in Abidjan addressing migration in a closed session. His words were there to break up with «the unfounded truths» widely spread and used in Europe regarding migrants and African migration. It is not «intercontinental. It is primarily intra-African : Out of 5 Africans who immigrate, 4 remain in Africa», said the sovereign.
«Irregular migration is not predominant; it accounts for only 20% of international migration; migration does not impoverish host countries : 85% of migrants’ earnings remain in host countries. And lastly, I would like to remind of the fact that countries of emigration, transit and settlement are now the same».
Mohammed VI has also slammed the prejudices that associate migration to drugs and human trafficking, and climate change. «In other words, now a days, in our collective imagination, migration is linked to poverty, precariousness, instability and even death», explains the sovereign.
A bi-continental partnership
«Few are able or willing to grasp the real causes of the phenomenon of migration, it is rigid and plagued with stereotypical representations : through images of jobless people without resources and sometimes with dubious profiles», he commented.
To conclude his speech, King Mohammed VI suggested that the EU-African partnership should be updated, moving «towards a new bi-continental pact. For Africa and Europe, it is a question of facing the shared challenges, track the productive companies, and regulate human mobility and fruitful cultural exchanges».
This partnership, as suggested by the king, can see light only when the terms set for granting loans are reviewed.
«Western countries expect, indeed, that some African countries – granted independence for less than half a century - have a political and an economic performance that is as positive and as important as their own, and thus impose conditions that are impossible to respect.»
It is an «aberration» denounced the sovereign, especially as «the same European countries sometimes face great financial and political difficulties».
