Africans are often lured by the perceived glamour and prestige nay economic prospect of emigrating abroad. Abroad meaning Europe, North America and more recently Asia and Australia. Seeking as they often argue for greener pastures – where the grass may not necessarily be green – is not altogether such a bad idea, but the means and ways of such a quest has become an increasing issue of worry and concern.
I have observed overtime that the desire to migrate abroad especially in a desperate and illegal manner has often led to dire consequences for many Africans sometimes leading to death or permanent maiming. We have heard, read and watched many reports of the travails of emigrants risking their lives through treacherous routes in their desperate attempt to reach Europe. In ‘Living with Illegals’, Sorious Samura the famous African documentary film maker showed the world the excruciating pain and danger these emigrants undergo to gain a rite of passage through the deserts and high seas.
Unfortunately, the perceived benefits of immigrating to Europe illegally is often truncated from day one, as the life of an illegal immigrant is likened to what Thomas Hobbes calls ‘nasty, short and brutish’. As it is the case in most European countries especially the United Kingdom, illegal immigrants are treated like varmints who are removed using all manner of means sometimes dehumanising.
The Home Office control of immigration quarterly statistical summary for April to June 2009 shows that 12.7 million people arrived in the UK legally from non-EU countries. It equally showed that 15,515 illegal immigrants were removed within the quarter including those that departed voluntarily compared to 15,930 for the same quarter last year (2008). This statistic show Afghanistan and India topping the list of removals with 1,405 and 1,320 respectively with Nigeria having 680 immigrants, the highest number in Africa, 140 of which were seeking asylum.
The categorisation as illegal immigrants equally includes those who have been refused asylum in the UK. According to the Home Office, a person classified as an illegal immigrant is any person who does not have any legal right to stay in the UK. This includes persons who enter or attempts to enter the UK illegally (including persons entering clandestinely and by means of deception on entry); overstay their period of legal right to remain in the UK; breach their condition of leave; are subject to deportation action, and; persons who have been refused asylum.
Another dimension to the illegal migration business are those immigrants that were actually apprehended and detained before they were removed from the UK. The Home Office control of immigration quarterly statistical summary for April to June 2009 show that 3,815 persons were removed upon leaving detention of which 1,520 were asylum detainees and 100 were children. And this excludes those actually serving prison terms for possessing illegal immigration documents or other crimes as illegal immigrants.
According to UKVisas 2008/2009 entry clearance statistics, there were over 346,120 applications for entry clearance visa into the UK from Africa compared to 340,515 between 2007/2008. The bulk of these applications were from Nigeria with 200,220 applicants that is 7,065 more than the previous year. With these level of applications between April 2008 and March 2009; a total of 134,595 applicants were refused in Africa compared to 214,050 visas granted.
These statistics have clearly shown that most applicants for UK visas in Africa are from West Africa. It is quite instructive to note that Nigeria jumped from third to second position over Pakistani between 2008 and 2009 in respect of volume of application by nationality. In comparing Nigeria and India, 112,850 visas were issued to Nigerians to India’s 392,250 and 88,275 were refused to 81,050 Indians respectively with Nigeria having 7,225 more refusals.
On a general note, the statistics above gives a composite reflection of the migration trend in Africa confirming that majority of applicants for visas are from Nigeria, with the percentage of refusals in Africa higher than most continents. It also confirms that the raison d’état for those seeking illegal means of migrating to the UK are traceable to the stringent restrictions to the legal mode of entry, Lagos and Abuja currently has the second and third highest refusal rates globally with 47% and 43% respectively. As the governments in Europe and North America makes it increasingly difficult for unqualified people to migrate to their countries, these desperate emigrants seek any means to travel albeit the risk to their life.
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