Migrant Crisis: Deaths Persist, Europe Divides, Africa Still Awaited

International Organization for Migration, IOM data shows that more than 2,000 migrants died or went missing in 2018 while crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. The figure is less, compared to over 3,000 deaths in 2017. Overall, there were fewer migrants knocking at the doorsteps of European countries in 2018 than in recent years. But this is not to say that the migrant situation in the world has become of less concern because of supposedly dwindling numbers.

Far from it! Misery, poverty and violence continue to uproot thousands of people from their homelands to flee in search of better living conditions – most often in the West. In the midst of all these mishaps, Europe is divided on how to tackle the phenomenon while strong African action is awaited. The EU has seen hundreds of thousands of migrants — including economic migrants, refugees and asylum seekers — enter the bloc in the last few years. For instance, in 2015 and 2016 alone, more than 2.5 million people applied for asylum in the EU, according to the European parliament, with many traveling over land and sea via Italy and Greece, or via Turkey and Eastern Europe.  Shocking is the fact that Europe remains as divided as ever over ‘almost impossible to solve’ migration crisis.

Meanwhile Africa, one of the continents from where the migrants are coming from, is yet to take a concrete step to halt the risky movement. Even though AU leaders have agreed to set up an organisation called the African Obs...