Crackdown on Migrants in Brazzaville, Congo as Thousands Flee

Over 60,000 nationals have fled the Republic of Congo (RoC) into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) as the government in Brazzaville intensifies its crackdown on illegal immigrants in the country. DR Congo authorities stationed at Ngolia Beach, the country's border with Brazzaville, Congo, have confirmed receiving ferries packed with close to 4,000 people on a daily basis.

According to a report by the Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN), most of the return migrants have cited harassment by RoC security authorities as a reason for their departure from the country. One of the returnees recounted, “Even those with proper residency permits have not been spared. In some cases, the police have burnt or tore these papers”. Red Cross officials, who have been on hand to receive them, have also admitted that most of the returnees had bruises and wounds. 

Going home: DR Congo nationals board buses supplied by their government to take them back home (Image Credit: www.news.yahoo.com)

On its part, top security chiefs in Brazzaville have conceded that there were violations in the operation, which was intended to weed out illegal and undocumented migrants in the country. Officials from the police department further announced that disciplinary action had been meted on policemen who were found to have used brute force in the exercise.

Government officials from Kinshasa, however, told reporters that only 1,000 people out of the overall return migrants were formally deported because they did not have the documents to stay in RoC.  Lambert Mende, the government spokesperson revealed, “A large percentage of the returnees fled the country out of fear of forceful expulsion”.

The migrants have been huddled in a sports stadium as well as the Kinshasa Town Hall where they have been provided with food and water. Their swelling numbers have, however, mushroomed into a humanitarian crisis. The head of Red Cross Kinshasa, Doris Muyembe revealed that some of the returnees were suffering from malaria, headaches, diarrhoea as well as malnutrition in children. Muyembe revealed, “We do not have enough medical supplies and this makes it hard to take care of everyone”.

Due to the proximity of the two countries, DRC citizens constitute the largest foreigners in RoC where they mainly engage in menial occupations, such as, domestic work, driving, garbage collection and hawking. The 2010 Migration and Remittances Factbook by World Bank revealed that RoC was one of the top destinations in Africa for immigrants from DR Congo; other immigrants who reside in RoC in large numbers include those from France, Central African Republic (CAR), Cote d’ Ivoire, Mali and Angola. Other top destinations in Africa for DR Congo nationals include Burundi, Rwanda, CAR, Uganda and Zambia. It also has one of the highest emigration rates in sub-Sahara Africa where in 2010, over 900,000 people emigrated from the country, which constituted 1.3 per cent of its total population.  

Return migrants are concerned about securing employment to earn a livelihood. Some of them urged their government to initiate programmes to enable them earn a living and avoid having to emigrate as an escape mechanism from poverty. 

Their unease for their economic welfare is something that usually resonates with other return migrants around the world. A 2013 report by the Transatlantic Forum on Migration and Integration titled Return Migration: Challenges and Opportunities  highlights the economic challenges faced by Cameroonian return migrants from various countries worldwide who have to compete for the scarce jobs available in their country. 

Some of them possess creative ideas for business and politics, which further earns them disdain and rejection from fellow Cameroonian citizens who consider them an unwanted and additional competition for the scarce employment opportunities. They also have to contend with the low salaries, which is a mismatch with their expertise. As a result, most of the return migrants have resorted to entrepreneurship ventures to fend off the ravages of poverty.

What are your views concerning the activities of the officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo?

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HRW Decries War Crimes in South Sudan

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the warring factions in South Sudan’s civil conflict of war crimes that has seen over 860,000 civilians forcibly displaced from their homes. Government forces as well as rebel armies, according to HRW, have engaged in ethnic-based extrajudicial executions and wanton destruction of property.

Daniel Bekele, HRW’s Africa Director, has urged the African Union (AU) to immediately initiate investigations and stop both sides from committing these abuses. “The AU should immediately commence investigations as it has long promised,” Bekele said. 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Africa Director Daniel Bekele has urged AU to take decisive action towards stopping war crimes in South Sudan (Photo Credit: Misterseed.com)

In the towns of Bentiu and Malakal, homes are virtually deserted and extensively destroyed as many residents have sought refuge in the relatively peaceful rural regions as well as UN camps. Many people are scared of returning to their homes for fear of more ethnic-motivated attacks. Both towns are homes to various ethnic groups and are key gateways to oil fields.

Some of the civilians who have remained in these towns have paid with their lives as was the case in Bentiu and Rubkona in January this year. HRW accuses the government forces of killing civilians remaining in the town as they sought to pursue rebels who had earlier on occupied the two towns.

Residents fleeing for their lives have not always had success as was witnessed last week when 150 people from Malakal drowned in the Nile River while escaping fighting between pro and antigovernment forces. According to Philip Jaben, the Information Minister of Upper Nile, the victims were trying to cross the river using boats when rebel forces shot at them prompting them to jump into the river.

The South Sudanese conflict began on December 15 2013 after heavy fighting among the presidential guard in the country’s capital, Juba. President Salva Kiir alleged that the fighting was a result of an attempted coup orchestrated by his former Deputy-turned-archrival Riek Machar. The latter, on the hand, claimed that the fighting was instigated by President Kiir as a cover-up for eliminating his rivals.

An agreement to cease hostilities was signed by both sides on January 23 2014. However, this seems to have done little to bring peace to the world’s newest nation. The war has taken an ethnic dimension pitting President Kiir’s Dinka group against Machar’s Nuer ethnic group.

South Sudan became the world’s youngest nation in 2011 after over 98 percent of its citizens voted in favour of independence from Sudan. This came after a 20-year civil war against the Khartoum government. The conflict, dubbed the ‘Second Sudanese Civil War’ saw millions of South Sudanese become refugees.

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Scholars Converge For Webinar on Migration and Health

Various scholars from around the world came together on 27 January 2014 for a web conference focusing on health consequences of migration. The event, titled ‘The Health Consequences of Migration: Emerging Directions in Scholarship and Research’, was held at each of the eight Global Centers of the Columbia Global Center around the globe. Some of the multidisciplinary scholars who graced the occasion included Jose Moya (Barnard College, USA), Khalid Koyer (Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Switzerland) and AMADPOC’s Executive Director Prof. John Oucho (Nairobi, Kenya).

The webinar, hosted by the Columbia Population Research Center in the School of Social Work in Amsterdam, delved on the health impacts of migration and sought to establish a worldwide network of health and migration scholars who can continuously engage in the conversation for the coming decade. The global debate, featuring discussions at each of CGC’s centers, further shed light on Surveillance and Research Challenges as well as the Politics of Migration and Health.

AMADPOC Executive Director Prof. John Oucho during Monday's web conference at the Columbia Global Center Africa headquarters in Nairobi (Picture courtesy of www.amadpoc.org).

At the CGC Africa headquarters in Nairobi, Prof. Oucho highlighted the health problems that come with rural-urban migration in the capital cities of three Eastern African countries: Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Kampala (Uganda) and Nairobi (Kenya). His presentation titled, ‘Health Consequences of Migration in Informal Settlements in Informal Settlements in Eastern Africa,’ revealed that poor urban infrastructure and lack of employment opportunities had driven urban migrants to informal settlements where they had replicated their rural lifestyles. Prof. Oucho reiterated the need to understand urban informal settlements in the context of environmental conditions, health challenges and housing.

The web conference  earmarked the need to identify potential collaborators in migration and health as well as the importance of assisting students and young scholars in this discipline. The conglomeration of scholars also agreed on the importance of identifying activities and themes for networking.

The Columbia Global Centers Africa began its operations in Kenya in January 2012 after signing a Host Country Agreement with the Kenyan government. It aims to enable the highest levels of knowledge and learning for and in the African continent. It also endeavours to create a hub for global curriculum and scholarly outreach in Africa. Other CGC Centers are stationed in New York (USA), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Santiago (Chile), Amman (Jordan), Mumbai (India), Istanbul (Turkey) and Beijing (China).

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Be Mindful of Migrants’ Rights

On this day, 18 December 2013, the world observes the International Migrants’ Day in accordance with the proclamation by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on 18 December 2000. In observing this day, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), UN member states as well as intergovernmental agencies have an obligation to disseminate information on human rights and fundamental freedoms of migrants. Furthermore, they are invited to share experiences and design actions that guarantee the protection of foreign migrants. On this front, commendable efforts have been undertaken by the stakeholders concerned to ensure that migrants enjoy their human rights regardless of their status in the countries of destination.

Sadly, migrants continue to face myriad challenges in their countries of destination as well as their countries of origin. International migration is a consequence of various tribulations in the countries of origin, such as, poverty, civil conflicts, persecution emanating from discrimination, economic hardships and insecurity. Upon arrival in their countries of destination, foreign migrants often have to contend with additional problems. They become victims of human rights violations in the form of racism, xenophobia, slavery, forced labour and denial of access to fundamental social and economic rights, such as, right to health or right to education. Foreign migrants may also be subjected to degrading working conditions. 

The face of desolation: Challenges await these migrants as they move in search of a better life (Photo courtesy of www.doctorswithoutborders.org)

In October 2013, Tanzania was the scene for nasty incidences of xenophobia after several Malawian migrants were targeted by certain locals for allegedly making life difficult for them. South Africa was also in the news in May 2008 after a wave of attacks against foreign migrants, which was one of the most devastating. A survey in 2010 by the Southern Africa Migration Programme (SAMP) titled, Soft Targets: Xenophobia, Public Violence and Changing Attitudes to Migrants in South Africa, revealed that there were positive developments concerning South Africans’ attitudes towards foreign migrants. Despite the optimism, SAMP sounded an alarm to the fact that 80 per cent of the natives either want migrants to be prohibited from entering the country or support legislation to restrict the migrants' entry.

Contrary to negative tags that have been put on foreign migrants, their movement into other countries bodes well for their destinations and countries of origin. According to the UN, the potential gains of respecting migrants’ rights are larger than the benefits that can be accrued from free international trade, especially for developing nations. Instead of competing with the natives for jobs, migrants actually complement the skills of the latter by undertaking tasks that would cost more for the employers. This allows domestic workers to perform other tasks that are more productive and better paying.

Foreign migrants spur economic growth in the countries of destination by contributing entrepreneurial skills acquired from countries of origin, enlarging the labour force or pool of consumers in the countries of destination. For example, in 2006, the Bank of England admitted that increased migration into the United Kingdom was responsible for the steady prices of oil, which in turn prevented an upsurge in inflation. The growth of the buy-to-let market in the UK also increased due to the increased demand for housing facilities by new arrivals.

Not only do foreign migrants contribute to economic growth, they also foster the creation of multicultural societies through cultural diversity. People in the countries of destination encounter cultures of the migrants, which creates cultural awareness and acceptance. This fosters understanding and respect among societies, people and cultures. 

Cry of a migrant: We should hear migrants' plea for the world to respect their rights (Photo courtesy of www.atlanticblackstar.com)

Such benefits can only materialize when foreign migrants are allowed to enjoy their rights.  Several conventions exist to ensure that this becomes a reality. The International Convention on the Protection of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW) adopted by UNGA in 1990 states that all migrant workers are entitled to enjoy their human rights; their legal status notwithstanding. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) also adopted two conventions namely: ILO 97 Migration for Employment Convention and ILO 143 Migrant Workers Convention.  Both conventions make provisions concerning the working life of migrants, such as, access to information, medical attention, family reunification, recruitment and maintenance of their own culture.

The number of foreign migrants worldwide has steadily increased from 175 million in 2000 to 232 million in 2013 where one in every ten is aged 15 years old. Migration continues to affect every corner of the world where many countries have simultaneously become countries of destination, origin and transit. In the words of Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Governments are obliged to ensure that xenophobic violence, racism and related intolerance against migrants are non-existent in their societies." People across the globe should assist their governments in this regard by being mindful of the rights of the foreign migrants in their midst.

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