The Origin of Countries Names: Africa

2016 Migratory Report by Matias Cavoti Part 5: Africa

Africa:

To begin this section on Africa giving a brief picture some of the general problems that migrants have to face in their trek towards better opportunities, then we will observe particular problems that were relevant during the last three year in individual countries. No African nation is classified as a tier 1,  20 of its States are tier 2 countries like Ethiopia. Morocco and Egypt, 16 are tier 2 watch list, with Mali, Niger and Tunisia being the most notable. Now the continent has the highest concentration  of tier 3 States with a total of 13  with both Sudans, Eritrea, Djibouti and Algeria being some of the most complex cases and finally two of the three special cases of countries that suffer extremely high levels of lawlessness Libya and Somalia can be found in this group of nations.

 An important problem characterizes this content like a high number of Stateless people, who are individuals that lack any kind of identity documents and their countries do not recognize them as their citizens/national, and severely hinders their access to any basic public services like health and education complicating these people economic opportunities. The UN agency for Refugees estimates 10 million people are Stateless around the world and 1/3 are minors (P23, TIP 2016). 

Now, why are Stateless people of interest in a migratory report? well its due to the fact that they do not have any type identification or nationality in the first place, as mention before, so obviously they do not have travel documents so there obligated to transit illegally, having to use smugglers to cross, possibly falling into the hands of traffickers because they are easy targets to coerce or to tricked  into bonded labor. Stateless people are the permanent fuel reserve for the trafficker and smugglers.

Another aspect that traffickers take advantage is that stateless people are not nationals of any State,  they have no national authorities to go to, these people have never been registered as citizens anywhere so no State has the obligation to find them if they go missing, they are as invisible as you can get.

A Stateless person can't access public education, health, get married, get a driver's license, work...legally, it like they don't exist; But how does this happen? Well, normally when a  person is born the infant acquires the nationality of where he/or she is born or it is acquired through descendence from their parents, and in some cases a person must apply to become a national in the first place. Most of the time citizens are formally registered in the public administration of the country where they were born and is given a birth certificate and identification. Now it must be understood in the case of many African States especially sub-Saharan Nations, they do not have their whole population covered with identity documents but not all of these undocumented people are considered Stateless. Now some people are born stateless, and others become stateless; but how can this happen? Basically State themselves generate this situation through action, omission or error, they negate the possibility to certain people in their territory the possibility in accessing citizenship, in some cases the mere presence of these individuals is deemed illegal, even if it's their country of birth.   

An interesting example of Stateless people in Africa, is the case of the people that fled the civil war in Liberia and Sierra Leone that are no longer considered by their host countries as refugees and were not allowed to naturalize there and have had difficulty repatriating themselves, in an article called "Who belongs? Statelessness and Nationality in West Africa" by Bronwen Mandy gives the example Liberia turned down 1.000 petitions for Passports from ex-refugees that were Liberian but their homeland justified because these people did not have enough Knowledge of Liberia. 
In Africa groups that are at risk of becoming Stateless are: as mention before refugees,  irregular migrants and their children are explicitly discriminated against and not allowed to naturalize or have legal residencies, nomadic populations that have always suffered suspicions from settled populations, border population that no State wants to take responsibility for and  children that are born out of wedlock with single mothers or raped women in which many African countries will not give this person nationality because it is only given through paternal descent.
Now in Africa, even those who would have no problem into accessing the right of identification and nationality are a serious problem accessing them because of the excessive requirements and costs. Weak in civil registration and identification plagues the African States, only 4% of births are registered in Liberia, 24% in Guinea-Bissau and less the 50% in Niger and Nigeria (Bronwen/MPI 2016), so many African have no opportunity in acquiring the basic travel documents that they need, pushing them to migrate irregularly.  And if they could  African travel documents have very little access to visa-free travel, another hurdle if they want to migrate,  in a ranking of 160 countries made by passport index, in the bottom ten countries five are from Africa  Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Eritrea and Sudan. Seychelles is the highest ranked African country in 55th place and South Africa the first continental State at 93rd.  
      

Eastern Africa: 

Djibouti: This country is a transit place of Ethiopian, Somali and Eritrean voluntarily and involuntarily migrants in route to Yemen and Saudi Arabia. This country is a tier 3 State so it's a hotspot for human trafficking and a distribution hub for these criminals, and adding to this situation because of the  between Yemen and Saudi Arabia that has been raging since (YEAR),   30.000 Yemeni citizens have crossed into Djibouti fleeing the war in their country of origin, being exploited once they arrive to this African nation, some being kidnapped for ransom by smugglers.  

 Eritrea: This State is classified tier 3 and both the IOM  and TIP  reports establish that Eritrean nationals are suffering disproportionally at the hands of traffickers, in a study by van Reisen Estefanos and Rijken, called The Human Trafficking Cycle: Sinai and Beyond mentions that between 25.000-30.000 (121p. FJ) Eritreans had fallen victim to organized crime between 2009-2013 and around 10.000 have died. Many were kidnapped for ransom, that if not paid, they are killed and some get  their organs to be sold on the Egyptian black market, which in the report mentions that the World Health Organization (WHO 2015) actually accuses Egypt to be an organ trafficking hotspot. In the Mediterranean Missing report from 2016 also accuses Turkey of organ trafficking, practicing unnecessary autopsies on the dead to mask organ removal from the bodies of dead migrants and refugees

Now what drives Eritreans to leave their country, the report mentions that obligatory military conscription pushes many people out to the country, because the time they serve in the military is just terrible and inhuman, evading this is considered a major crime in the country, this puts people on the run and adding to this situation Eritrean government has a policy of shooting on sight if caught red handed leaving the country by land or sea.

It must be noted that in the TIP report, Eritrea only gets a very basic diagnostic, about two paragraphs, while most countries get half to a full page of information, and the study explicitly mentions that  US official have no idea what's going on in the country, in another report on Terrorism published 2015 also by the State Department they actually recognize this problem and put as a priority to obtain intelligence from this country. 

Ethiopia: This countries national also fall victim to trafficker once they cross into Yemen, and even those who are not victims of these crimes suffer great hardships in their route to Saudi Arabia, now during 2013-2014 this Arab country had a cracked down on migrants, using forced returns with deported 160.000 (p 141. FJ) Ethiopians. as mentioned previously the flow into Yemen is bidirectional flow but it's estimated that in 2016 around 92.000 (P 24. FJ2) Ethiopians are in Yemen, and 168.000 Yemenis have left their country with 79.000 have crossed into Africa.

Many Ethiopians boys are trafficked to Djibouti and forced to work as errand boys, domestic workers, thieves and street beggars. But many times the minor's parent forcibly send them to Djibouti or they leave the country by their own initiative alone bribing public officials to acquire passports without their parent's consent to search for work tending to fall into the grasp of traffickers most of the time.

Ethiopia has one of the highest fertility rates in the world with a population of 92 million, so  a full blown Ethiopian Exodus in the future could be a potential crisis in waiting, one must add that in this country there is also a culture of migration, to migrate and establish oneself is a sign of personal success.  

 Sudan: This country is characterized with a complicated situation with important amounts of unaccompanied minors, refugees and asylum seekers primarily from East and West Africa  that somehow have ended up in its territory, that are vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labor, there have been reports of cases of Ethiopians and Eritreans being abducted from Sudan based refugee camps. Eritreans have even been kidnapped from or near border crossings, brutalized and offered return only if a ransom is paid, the responsible from this particular migratory crime are linked to the Rashaida Tribe but the Sudanese border guards allegedly facilitate the abductions  (IOM 2016).  

Northern Africa:

Algeria: Even though this country is a member of the IOM  neither both Fatale Journey reports or the Connecting the Dots study mention this country, and both studies write extensively about what is happening in the region of the Maghreb referring the perils and difficulties migrants suffer in that part of the world, but the US Tip report does elaborate on the Human Trafficking situation in this country, that is classified as a tier 3, explaining that undocumented sub-Saharan migrants from Mali, Niger, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria are vulnerable to labor and sex traffickers, because of their irregular migratory status, their need to work, to be able to feed themselves and the language barrier, creates this level of social isolation that make it easy for trafficker to obtain new recruits.  

Isolation plays a fundamental role for human trafficking to thrive and maintain itself, it seeks to hide from government oversight, finding a strong foothold in rural and agriculture areas, at high sea in fishing vessels, in mines and in other isolated industries like textile workshops. But there are other forms of isolation that migrants suffer especially which can be can be cultural, political and legal isolation in transit or destination countries which pushes them illegality, which can leave these people in a situation of vulnerability for the trafficker to take advantage of this situation.

Debt bondage with smugglers is a common practice in this country, with migrants having to pay for their services through domestic labor, forced begging or prostitution. In some cases of the beggars will rent babies to other conational beggars so they can generate more sympathy and make more money.   

The Department of State report affirms that Tuareg are one of the groups that pushing the slave trade in the reason, thanks to their capacity and logistics in the Sahel. The Report also explains that the Algerian authorities are sluggish in their response to the cases of human trafficking and have the tendency of arresting and detaining the victims of migratory violations, so these people many times do not have who to turn to and do not denounce in fear of ending up in jail themselves.   Vacatur is a fundamental concept in the fight against human trafficking, it establishes that crimes committed as result of being subjected to trafficking, such record should be vacated or expunged. Vacatur is the formal recognition of factual innocence, because if this doesn't happen victims cannot make any plea for help to State official because they are at risk of being jailed or expelled, and this plays right into the trafficker's hands.  

Egypt: A trafficking issue that stands out in Egypt, is when individuals from the Persian Gulf, including Saudi, Kuwaiti and Emirati nationals perches Egyptian women and girls for temporary or summer marriages for the commercial sex and/or forced domestic labor, with the parents of the girls work as the transaction brokers. Syrian women have been easy targets to force into marriage or to sell them off as domestic labor

In Egypt itself South Asians, East Africans and Syrians are subjected to forced labor, domestic services and begging, and the report explains the foreign domestic workers a not covered by Egyptian labor law leaving these people in an extremely vulnerable situation, suffering excessive hour of work, confiscation of travel documents, withholding wages, denial of food and medical.

The Sinai Peninsula had been a hotbed of illegal activities of human and organ trafficking, a place where many Eritreans fall victim, but during 2015/16 the Egyptian Army have moved into the area expelling these criminal elements, but it's possible that these same groups have resurfaced and relocated on the Libyan border.

Libya: Racism and Xenophobia are major issues for migrants in this country and this is added to the already complicated social-political situation, but migrants still travel to this country searching for work. Now when they arrive discovering the hostility towards them, and this tends to push them to try their luck in crossing the Mediterranean, before returning home empty handed to their homelands. In some cases migrants are trapped in Libya not willing to cross to Europe and facing a hostile situation, they find that they have no one to go to because most countries have closed their embassies since the end of the war. 

In the US TIP report  doesn't classify Libya in any of the tiers, but considers this country a Special Case, with Somalia and Syria, these are State with a high level of lawlessness due to the conflict that these States have to deal and this internal chaos has produced a fertile breeding ground for trafficker and migrants exploitation in general. In the case of  Libya, this country has trafficking networks reach stretch into Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan shuttling victims to forcibly work Libya or trick people into going to the country with the promise of a false job.  

In the  Connecting the Dots Report reveals why there is such hostility towards migrants, explaining that  rival factions, the official government, and rebel groups, accusing the migrants having helped the opposing  side, with a particularly strong scapegoating against Palestinian and Syrians, but  this comes off  somewhat as a paradox because the Libyan Crisis has "created the perception of the  Door of Europe being open"  (82p. Altai)  and Libya is the doorstep. Libya is the main jumping point to cross to Italy and Malta, 80%  (78p. Altai) of all the illegal boat arrivals to Italy part from Libya.

 In the case of Sub-Saharan migrants, there is a strong cultural push back in this North African country against what was Muammar Gadafi's migratory policy of open doors towards African migrants, being part of his Pan-African political stance. Now, in contrast, the country has 18 official detention centers, under the control Directorate for Combating Illegal Migrants, a public institution created specifically to crack down on irregular migrants. Now one must note is that in the rebel-held areas of the country they also have migrant detention facilities but in unspecified numbers. 

The 26 of June of 2016 The European Commission created two task forces to engage Libyan authorities to better control the outflow of migrants using their country as a platform to cross to Europe. The first mission was to better prepare Libyan coast guard and Navy, to stop smuggler vessel from using their costs. The second mission affects the migratory flow indirectly is coordinating with the Libyan State in stopping the flow of weapons from crossing into Europe leading to more control on vessels, possibly stopping smuggler in these checks (European Commission 2016).    

Morocco: When migrants arrive to Morocco many stay  because of the difficulty in crossing to Spain, be it because the hindrance of the Moroccan or Spanish authorities or by the fact that they actually find jobs in the country, Morocco has a need for migrant labor in the agricultural sector and in construction and authorities actually gives them the possibility of establishing themselves legally, so they can be able to work. So in various ways, this State sometimes works like a buffer/barrier nation blocking the entrance to Europe, and they use this capability as a political tool to negotiate with Europe. 

Some female undocumented migrants primarily from Sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa are coerced into prostitution, the TIP report mentions that criminal networks operating out of Oujda near the Algerian border and in the northern coastal town of Nadar forced undocumented migrants into the sex trade and into begging (TIP 2016). The study also mentions Cameroonian and Nigerian trafficking networks established in Morocco exploit migrants and also threaten their families back home if they do not do their biddings (TIP 2016).

There are four main crossing routes to Spain from Morocco:  through the Gibraltar stretch, Tangier-Tarifa and two land crossings into Melilla and Ceuta, the two Spanish enclaves in Morocco that were mention before in the section about Spain. A big issue with Spain is the fact that Syrians actually are able to "rent" Moroccan passports, because ethnically they are similar to Moroccans who are allowed to enter transitorily to the enclaves, once in, they petition for asylum. It is interesting to see that latter this worked the other way in 2015 becuase Moroccans posed as Syrian in the Balkan corridor to enter Europe.

Tunisia: The country has disarticulated most of the migratory flow through its territory especial heading towards the sea, there are many migratory checkpoints in the country filtering out irregular migrants. But everything isn't perfect in this country there have been reports of mass graves near Zargis of bodies that wash up on shore, locals have nothing to do with the dead so they basically throw them in a pit at the local landfill. 

West and Central Africa: 

Mali: The situation in this country isn't as bad as previously mentioned African countries but it does have a trafficking hotspot the  city of Gao being pinpointed as another trafficking center for migrants, in OIM reports, but in the US TIP report Mali is a Tier 2 not mentioning the criminal activities in this city, even though it mentions that "alleged corruption is pervasive throughout the security forces and judiciary institution, which impedes on the government's efforts to persecute crimes in general, including trafficking" (p260 TIP 2016). The Report does mention that the Tuareg do practice hereditary slavery practices and that Malian boys like many other west African youth that are of Muslim faith are forced to beg for their Marabouts / Religous Teachers.

 Mauritania: Like in Niger hereditary slavery is practiced in this country, having a traditional slave cast, women of this group are at high risk of being forced into the slave trade and being sent abroad. The TIP report affirms that Middle Eastern and North African use legally contracted marriages to sexually exploit Mauritanian women and girls to become sex slaves in Saudi Arabia, sometime women are tricked to think they are going to be employed in Arabe State and end up or in the sex trade or in forced domestic servitude. West African boys sent to the Mauritanian Muslim religious schools are forced to beg for the local Imans, but really stands out in the TIP report about this country is that "41% of Mauritanian children lack birth certificates, so generally are not permitted to enroll schools, which increases the risk for being trafficked"(p263 TIP 2016), and as mentioned before the lack of proper civil registration open the door to all kinds of human rights abuses.

Niger (Source, Transit and Tier 2 Country): This country is characterized by having a cast based slavery system, Islamic religious teachers called Marabouts make their students beg, prostitute themselves and force them into domestic labor and OIM reports establishes that the cities of Arlit and Agadez, are human trafficking hotspots. Loosely organized networks of Individual including Marabouts trafficking migrants to Algeria, while in the south near Nigeria Borno State Boko Haram kidnaps minors to serve in their terrorist organization.

Trafficked Children from Niger and from Neighbor countries are sold to work in countries mines, while trafficked women are sold as "Fifth Wives" who are subject to forced domestic and sexual labor typically they between the ages of 9 and 11 and their children are born slaves (TIP 2016).  

 

Syrian in Africa: Something that laid the ground work for the disaster that pushed thousands of Syrian  fleeing their conflict to cross by boat to Europe via Turkey , when air travel routs started to be blocked in 2013 Egypt started to require visas for Syrian passengers so airlines companies wouldn't embark those who didn't have them and Egyptian authorities wouldn't issue them, in 2014 Algeria and Libya followed the same example, leaving Sudan as the only option to travel by air and latter they would transit to Libya by land to try and cross into Europe by boat.

2016 Migratory Report by Matias Cavoti Part 4: Europe

¿Is Fortress Europe Crumbling? ¿or is it building new walls? :

Let's start this section with a very brief historical overview of Europe on migratory issues especially illegal transits, migrants fatalities and missing that have been the center of IOM reports when working on this region. Now during the late  90's and early 2000's there were very few fatalities for migrants and refugees  (MRs)  mostly tried to enter legally into the content and subjected themselves to the States controls, and irregular migrants were the product of overstays in their permanence, but things changed when the European States increasingly started  to make it an obligation to travel with visas and fined companies if any of their passengers did have them, and this basically shut the door for potential refuge seekers to get on any flights, busses, boats... their options were severely reduced. This sets the trend for the next 15 years before the MRs crisis of 2015, where European countries  did not know how to manage the influx of  the mixed migratory flow of people risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean or Aegean seas from Africa or the Middle East, and things boil over generating a full-blown crisis with the Syrian refugee crisis that had a profound impact on migrant trying to enter Europe. From the year 2000 till 2014, it's estimated that 25.000 have perished trying to cross the Mediterranean (OIM 2015), in another report filed by the OIM called the Fatal Journey; Lives Lost During the Migration (FJ 2015), written by Tara Brain and Frank Laczko, affirm  that 17.306 people have died trying to cross during the period of 1993 to 2012, and 14.600 of those were in the Mediterranean. Fatal Journey cites another report that establishes 19.812 deaths from 1988 to 2014, now way are there three reports with different death tolls because there are no official statics of how many people have died on the trek to Europe, the bodies are not identified, there is no death certificated made and families are not notified, there is no paper trail for the bureaucrats to follow or established policy, it almost like the problem isn't there, but it's a very visible invisible problem that pretty much smacked Europe on its face. The problem got so bad that municipalities and towns where many of the dead were being found had run out of space to bury the dead a need to allocate new terrain for cemeteries.    

In 2015 IOM establishes that 1.011.712 million MRs have entered Europe during the crisis, and up to the 15 of august of 2016 they had 266.042 people arrived, with 3151 fatalities during that year. The Syrian crisis that is pushing Europe to the limits that have not been seen since the Boat People crisis after the Vietnam war.

Now from 2013 to 2015, a series of reports by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) diagnosed that the lack of a proper migratory policy was leading to a large amount of unnecessary migrant deaths and a possible crisis could be on its way. In a study called Migration Trends Across the Mediterranean: Connecting the Dots, written by the IOM's regional office MENA,  explains how the lack of  coordinated policies lead to the death of 3.500 people in 2014 and  3771 deaths in 2015, and this tragedy was owed to the fact that Europe had severe structural administrative, political and security failures, generating a situation where people have taken unnecessary risks out of desperation putting their lives in danger.

The European Union itself has a very particular institutional and legal situation, that we will not get into because it would be report all to its self, but one can affirm that the whole system buckled and almost totally collapses during the refugee crisis in 2015, that had a strong undercurrent of migrants mixed into the flow of refugees heading north through the Western Balkans, Dublin III  had been suspended generating a push for MR into heart of Europe heading to Germany, since they did not have to stay in the first country that had arrived to. This was done to relieve the burden of Italy and Greece who had a large accumulation of MRs in their territories, and also reduce the cost of take back to force migrants back to the first State in which they had arrived to,  which is established in Dublin III. The crisis also provoked that  transit countries of the Schengen Area  near the Balkan Corridor temporarily reinstated land border controls, Frontex was shown to have a lack of means and recourses in stopping the flow from reaching Europe  in the first place and in early 2016 the EU/Schengen policy of  non-foulement[1]  was  broken forcing refugees  and migrants out of Greece and back to Turkey. 

an important recurring issue in the migratory reports of the last three years the political void of the border deaths and missing, that isn't exclusive to Europe because it happens on a global level but most reports centers around the fact that the Mediterranean  is probably the most dangerous place on the planet for migrants that are trying to cross it in a Study called Mediterranean Missing, Understanding the Needs of the Families and Obligations of the States, 2016, by City University, University of York and the IOM, the report establishes that there is policy vacuum produced by the fact the  EU does not know how to handle  the deaths of the people that try to cross the Mediterranean, there isn't a standardized protocol how to manage and dispose the bodies of the dead that are found in European waters and coasts. and mostly EU countries (like many other States) do not identify the dead or inform their families basically denying them solidarity and closure.  Nor EU or individual State members have centralized database holding information on migrants missing, identified dead, unidentified bodies or DNA samples. Sometimes the only place where families can get information is from the smugglers which tend to lie, establishing that their love ones have crossed and are alive and well, because telling the truth that they have died is bad for business.   

Now this also affects the capacity for the EU States to handle the issue, because not managing correctly this problem by not elaborating statistics, does not generate a paper trail so the authorities do not have the correct information to be able to fix the problem in the first place because they are operating blind wasting time and money with reactive policies. But it is to be seen what will change and impact in border security and control with Frontex that has converted into the official border security and cost guard of the European Union as of September of 2016 expanding its mandate, not covered in the first two quarterly reports of 2016, with the third and fourth yet to be published, to see this institution's impact on the migratory flow.

Something observable in Frontex's  quarterly reports is that they go great lengths to not to use the term Irregular Migrants, but it does not use the term of Illegal Migrants either, they use the term Illegal Stay, these institutional documents walk the symbolic tightrope political correctness and the need to instill urgency of a threat very well.

Another term that is different in these reports is that uses the term  facilitators and not traffickers/smugglers, and it doesn't define the concepts, now during this  first and second quarter studies the Frontex informs that it had 568 cases of stopping facilitators operating in the Balkan corridor, but the report establishes  that migrant movement during the refugee crisis  was very self-organized in this region, not depending on smugglers to reach their destination.    

In Frontex's second Quarter Report (Q2) of 2016 mentions that Afghans are becoming the most prominent group in the region being 34% of the of the total of the nonregional migrants while Syrians dropped to the second place with 16% (P8 WBQ2). One must note that Afghans and Iraqis seem to be a constant in Europe as irregular migrants, the EU will have to take proactive steps if they want to take control of these migrants that had taken advantage of the Syrian crises to piggyback their way into Europe.

Irregular migratory movement in 2016 has grown by 19%  in the Schengen area from Q1 of 2015 with 127.000 cases, with Iraqis and Iranians, citizens being the most prominent and Frontex mentions the presences of Moroccans and Algerians that tried to enter Europe through the Balkan corridor and Hungry, and in some cases with Syrian IDs.

Frontex ranks refusals at entry with Ukrainians in the first place with 6.555, Albanian with 3.615 and Moroccans at 1.755, all of these cases at land crossings, while Brazilian had the highest refusal rate at European airports 878. Reports establish  that the Syrian Refugee flow has mostly  stopped, but  we can observe the studies concentrates on how to stop Albanian, Kosovar, Afghan and Turkish migrants in the south-east,  in the North East  there seems to be worry over Russian movement and transits and  illegal overstays of Iraqis and Iranians in the heart of the EU is cause of alarm, so we have to wait till Q3 and Q4 to see how these dynamic situations evolve. 

EU member States that have had important migratory events in the past three years:

Czechia/ Czech Republic: Here is a case worth mentioning in how to handle human trafficking which isn't the only case in Europe, but it is a good example in how to combat this crime correctly. In the United States, Department State of  TIP report of  2016 classifies this State as a tier 1 country having  cases of debt bondage in the construction sector, forestry, manufacturing and the service sector, but is interesting to see how the report centers on the positive steps the country has taken  combat  these migratory crimes, like helping more NGOs engage and help victims, train and add more law enforcement exclusively dedicated to fight this crime and training judges and prosecutors in how to manage these cases to help victims out.

Germany:  This country that has been the main destination for refugees with migrants that have piggybacked their way into the heart of  Europe, trying to take advantage of the situation. So not only does Germany has to deal with the  influx of Syrian refugees during the crisis of 2015 but also a strong flow of migrants from the Balkans that are also petitioning for Asylum, even though they are mostly are economic migrants, so the German authorities  had decided to take the  position on this issue, fast tracking and rejecting these petitions of citizens of this region adding their State to an official "Safe Country" list. In 2014 Germany had Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Ghana and Senegal on the safe country list and added in 2015 Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro, and by lw  anyone of these countries can only be taken off the list by decree for a maximum time of six months. For example out of 49.692 Albanian Asylum Petitions were taken by Germany from January to October 2015 , only 7 were given refugee status and 25.600 were rejected, we have another example with citizens from Kosovo that made 35.600 asylum petitions in the same time frame and also only having 7 acceptances for refugee status and 24.400 rejected. While in contrast 103.708  Syrian petitions were made in the same time frame and while still being processed only 0.02% were rejected (Asylum Information Data Base AIDA 2016). 

Other EU countries also have safe countries lists like Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic,  Denmark, France, Ireland, Luxemburg, Malta, Slovakia... just to name a few  however each country has a different lists, but Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia are on most of these lists. Now the European Commission has expressed the need to establish a unified list but the initiative has not materialized yet.

Greece: This country has felt the brunt of the Syrian refugee crisis, with a massive number of refugees and migrants using its territory for transit totally overwhelming its public services while trying to recover from an economic catastrophe. The MR flow crossed from Turkey through the Aegean sea, so in 2014 Frontex started Operation Poseidon was created to help lift some of the burdens the Greek officials were going through trying to manage the situation helping the country with border security, search and rescue missions, registration, identification and deportation. Frontex added with 19 vessels, 1 aircraft, 2 helicopters and 667 agents from around Europe, with a cost of 6.626.661 Euros (Frontex and European Commission 2016).  NATO also collaborated with Frontex, adding 31 vessels and working intelligence to crack down on smugglers, working with the Greek and Turkish coastguards, and analyzing the possibility of extending its missions to other areas of the Mediterranean.

Italy and Malta: The surge of migrants arriving to Italy and the Lampedusa tragedy 3 of October of 2013, where 366 (OIM 2015) migrants from Eritrea, Somalia and Ghana that sunk off the coast of the Italian island. This tragedy was a game changer, there had been a before and after marking precedent of the  incumbent crisis, the Mare Nostrum program was born as result, its principal mandate was to search and rescue, but it produce an unwanted effect on the migratory flux, it produce a pull effect, MRs would hit the seas knowing if they didn't make it there was a good chance that the Italian's would save them, the traffickers really took advantage of  the program. Also during Mare Nostrum  many of the possible MRs that could have arrived to this Island ended up in the Sicilia.   After a year Mare Nostrum is replaced with a Frontex program called Triton, which had fewer resources and its mandate centered around the protection of Italian and Maltin territories. Frontex also added two more operations that would complement Triton: Hermes and Nautilus, these three programs to complement joined efforts to stop MRs from Tunisia, Libya and Algeria. Up to 80% of MRs that reached Italy in 2015 used Libya and Egypt as their platforms to cross to Europe, with the closure of the Balkan corridor the Libyan route started to become the most deadly way to Europe. 

Now the EU itself also has created a special naval force working under the mandate of Operation Sophia which started in August of 2015 patrolling the Mediterranean to stop Smugglers vessel from reaching Europe, having arrested 89 smugglers and being handed over to the Italian authorities.  This operation also worked search and rescue missions, having saved more than 26.000 migrants.    

Spain: In a fascinating  report by Altai/IOM from 2015 called Migration "Trends Across the Mediterranean: Connecting the Dots"  starts off explaining that  90% of all irregular migrants entered legally to Spain and became irregular when their permanence expired and only 10% (10p. Altai 2015) entered through illegal boat crossings. Most of the flow the heads to Spain originates from Senegal, Cameroon, Guinea and Nigeria. And the report makes the observation that there has been a steady transition from migrants to Asylum Seekers.  

The two largest groups of irregular migrants in Spain during 2014 were Syrians with 66.684  people and Eritreans 34.341  and it must be noted that both nationals cross the African continent from east to west, instead of trying to cross through Egypt or Turkey, these two groups were far ahead of the unspecified Sub-Saharans at 26.341. Spain had 5.941 asylum petitions made during 2014 with Syrians being around 28% , Ukrainian nationals at 16% and Malians at 10% (26p. Altai 2015).

Spain has three Frontex Operation working on its door step trying to stop illegal entries into its territory: Hera, Indalo and Minerva, patrolling its waters trying to stop smugglerss  and working search and rescue missions.

Now what sets Spain apart from other European countries is that it  has two enclaves in Morocco Cueta and Melilla, which that are completely fenced off from the African nation, and in the case of Melilla  the  IOM report  mentions that migrants actually storm the fence in large groups and authorities from both sides try to stop them but some do make it  through, and it must be noted that the Moroccan authorities have made a second fence perimeter on their side. 

Now for Cueta because of its  geographic position migrants try to access it by sea but are pushed back with force by the Spanish Guardia Civil and they have used in the past pellet guns to scary them off, but this particular practice has actually killed migrants in the past. 

Frontex partnership Western Balkans ( Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia): There has been in the first quarter of 2016 a 84% decrease in illegal transits compared  the previous  quarter in 2015 with 215.000, with Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Iranian and Moroccans being 48% of the bulk of the flow while 51% are of unknowns nationalities (P 6. WBQ1 2016), while during  Q2 there were 26.488 illegal transits with a 88% drop from Q1. The EU-Turkey agreement has effected that migratory and Refugee flow of the whole region, adding the coordinated efforts of the countries of the region and the EU since November of 2015 they start slowly blocking, filtering and funneling refugees and migrants back to Greece and after the agreement back to Turkey, the 9th of March the corridor was officially closed. Until the EU-Turkey agreement went into effect there was a large mass of  Migrants and Refugees (M/R) accumulation in Greece putting stress on their infrastructure. In 2016 the number of arrivals to Europe dropped from 1.056.599 people in 2015 to 387.739 (IOM 2017), this in good measure is owed to the coordinated efforts of the EU with the Balkan States, Greece and Turkey.

Now in the first quarter of 2016 had 8.800 border rejections of migrants that could not enter the EU  States next to the Balkan corridor and the Balkan partner countries, while in the second quarter they  had 10.000 cases,  with citizens from Balkan States that are not part of the EU are the most rejected group followed by  Turkish nationals, the statistics of these rejections are not in the front part of the Frontex report like other data but in the annex because it a politically  sensitive issue the rejection of Citizens that are part of the partnership and the rejection of Turkish nationals, country that has allowed Syrian refugees back in to alleviate Greece.

In the Frontex  Q reports establishes that Albanians and citizens of Kosovo are most common cases of migrants that use fake travel documents using fake EU IDs  and both of these nationalities also are the highest regional cases of overstaying permanence. The study also makes the observation of Turkish nationals that illegally establishing themselves in Bosnia-Herzegovina but does not give statistics on the issue.             

Now referring to human trafficking the US TIP report give most of the Balkan countries  a tier 2 classification, for example the study mentions that Bosnia and Herzegovina has a general lack of protection for victims in the country or these State have a lack of resources. But Croatia has a lower classification than the rest with a tier 2 watch list   Cases of Bosnians and Romanians being forced to work the agricultural sector jobs and the countries judicial system that  has a high level  acquittals of  perpetrators  that force migrants to work, of  now on the other hand the  State is helping NGOs establish shelters.

Another country that must be mention from this region is Macedonia  downgraded from a tier 1  in 2015 to a tier 2 in 2016, because of problems with border guards that have been involved with traffickers   and even under the strain of the migratory crisis the government didn't put in enough effort in managing the situation, but the main problem  for the TIP report was that the government discontinued its partnership with the NGOs that had outreach programs to help the victims of human trafficking. 

Now while the TIP report criticized Macedonia while the Frontex studies only mentions that during the height of the Refugee crisis Macedonia built a two layered fence and  added more border guards that were trained and given resources by the IOM and the European Commission to help the country manage the situation.  

Frontex Eastern Partnership:

These particular reports focus on the European Union's eastern border and its partnership with neighbor countries Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, with Frontex.

The first two Quarterly reports of 2016 explains that most of the Illegal crossings at the eastern European border were not migrants but smugglers  with contraband  out of 840 cases in Q1 they were about 55% of the detained being Moldovan, Ukrainian and Russian nationals while 45% were migrants from Afghanistan and Vietnam (P 8. EE Frontex 2016). This scenario pretty much repeats itself in the second Quarter.

The report mentions an arctic route of migrants that enter through Finland with migrants from Afghanistan, India, Cameroon, Pakistan and Bangladesh, but this route has been closed, but the study does not explain how this route was closed.

Again we are confronted by the concept of facilitators, which have grown in presence in this region and  the report establishes that  smugglers are present in the region being  mostly  from Russia particularly   from the region of the Caucuses, Ukraine and Belarus, but since of the closure of the Arctic route to Finland migrant smuggling has dropped significantly. Document fraud doesn't seem to be an issue in the region with very few cases and visa overstays do not seem to be much of a problem either but that 99% of the cases were discovered when leaving means that Eastern border countries don't actively search for irregular migrants, while the Russian federations during most of 2016 started to crack down on migrants and heightened their `policing of their western borders shared with Europe.

There have been 19.293  refusals during Q1 at eastern European borders mostly done by Poland, rejecting the entry of Russians, Ukrainians and Moldavians (P8. EE Frontex 2016).   Now during Q2 there has strong increase with 25.640 rejections of entries again mostly by Poland rejecting citizens from the same State from the previous quarter.

Now let's focus on  some of  Frontex's partner States that have had some attention from migratory reports these past few years starting with Armenia, a transit country that is a tier I nation taking important step fight trafficking in person in its territory, but there it is still a source country for women and children for the sex trade and other forms of exploitation, mostly being sent to the UAE and Turkey, while Armenian men are subjected to force labor in Russia. It must be mentioned that George Armenia's neighbor and also part of the partnership  is also tier 1 nation taking many of the same steps and suffers the same problems as Armenia. 

Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia have taken a great efforts to disrupt the flow of foreign fighters transiting through and returning to  their respective  territories,  they have invested heavily in their border security, for example using  biometric and biographic ID control of people transiting through their respective  borders, control passenger manifest on flights and establishing watch list, and this possibly could have a spillover effect in hindering or stopping human trafficking and smugglers, because tools are fundamental in catching these criminals. Now in a US State Debarment report on Terrorism published in 2015, it affirms that these countries put in all this extra effort on border and document security because these State wants to secure visa-free travel to EU countries. Heavy securitization can be a double edge sword for migrants on one hand it can weed migratory crime but can be an obstacle for migrants because State can use national security as an excuse to block migrant from transiting or establishing themselves in their territory. 

Belarus  a country that an interesting situation, that makes it unique in Europe, it   is a tier 3 country almost the lowest ranking on the US TIP report, their citizen are victims of trafficker and being sent to Russia, Poland, Turkey and other Middle Eastern Nations, and also a hub for trafficking nationals of third countries, and another aspect that makes this State standout  is that Belarus sponsors forced labor, unemployed people must pay a fee to the State or face compulsory community service, and this could be an import push factor for its citizen wanting to migrate to Europe.

---

[1] Non-refoulement is a policy which is not to deport or deny  any petition of refuge, especial if it mean to send the person back to a dangerous place

Breakdown of the IOM Report Migration Trends Across the Mediterranean; Connecting the Dots (June 2015)

Migration Trends Across the Mediterranean; Connecting the Dots (June 2015)

By: Altai Consulting

Written: Arezo Melakouti

Supervised: Eric Davin

Study Conducted Between November 2014 and 2015

Note: When a mention Migrants just as in the report I'm referencing mix migratory flows 

It took me a while but finally  bring you guys the breakdown of the IOM report that came out last year, that describes the migratory situation of North Africa, and why people are taking the risk in crossing  Mediterranean and here is the original Report at this link..   

Key Points  and highlights by country:

Spain (Destination/Transit Country {note these country  classifications that I established are not defined in this report, but I'm using them for a report that I'm writing}): The Report starts off explaining that  90% ( 10p. Altai) of all irregular migrants entered legally and became irregular when their permanence expire, for example expiration of  visas, and became irregular and only 10% (10p. Altai) entered through illegal boat crossings. Most of the flow the head to Spain originates from Senegal, Cameroon, Guinea and Nigeria. And the report make the observation that there has been a steady transition from migrants to Asylum Seekers.  

The two largest groups of irregular migrants in Spain were Syrians with 66.684 (26p. Altai) people and Eritreans 34.341 (26p. Altai) individuals ( note that both nationals cross the African continent from east to west instead of trying to cross though Egypt) , these two groups were far ahead of the unspecified Sub-Saharans at 26.341 (26p. Altai). Spain had 5.941 (26p. Altai) asylum petitions made during 2014 with Syrians being around 28% , Ukrainian nationals at 16% and Malians at 10% (26p. Altai).

Spain has two enclaves in Morocco Cueta and Melilla, that are completely fenced off, and in the case of Melilla  the report  mentions that migrants actually storm the fence in large groups and authorities from both sides try to stop them but some do make it  through, and it must be noted that the Morocan authorities have made a second fence perimeter on their side. 

Now for Cueta  because of its geography migrants try to access it by sea but are pushed back with force by the Spanish Guardia Civil and they have used in the past pellet guns to scary them off, but this particular practice have actually killed migrants in the past.

 

 But in both cases migrants do try a less risky ways into crossing in to these enclaves like hiding in cars that are entering these territories. 

Morocco (Transit Country/ Destination Country/Springboard State /Buffer State): When migrants arrive to Morocco many stay  because of the difficulty in crossing to Spain or hindrance of the Moroccan government or the fact that they actually find jobs in the country, Morocco has a need for migrant labor in the agricultural sector and in construction and authorities actually gives them the possibility to do this legally and establish residency. So in a ways this State some times works like a barrier nation blocking the entrance to Europe, and they use this capability as a political tool to negotiate with Europe. 

There are four main crossing routs to Spain: through the Gibraltar stretch, Tangier-Tarifa and two land crossings into Melilla and Cueta two Spanish  enclaves in Morocco. 

Now this country also receives Asylum seekers that are feeling conflicts like Syrians nationals, residually Ivoirians that have fled their civil War and Nigerians escaping Boko Haram.  

A big issue with Spain is the fact that Syrians actually are able to "rent" Moroccan passports, because ethnically they are similar to Moroccans who are allowed to enter transitorily to the enclave, once in, they petition for asylum. 

Libya (Transit Country / Trafficking Hotspot/Springboard State/Buffer State) : The report reveals a complicated situation in this country while being hostile to the migratory flows having rival factions, the official government and rebel groups, accusing the migrants having help the opposing  side, with a particularly strong scapegoating against Palestinian and Syrians, but as somewhat of a paradox the Libyan Crisis has "created the perception of the  Door of Europe being open"  (82p. Altai)  and Libya is the doorstep. The country has 18 official detention centers and possibly has more none official centers held by the rebels. Migrants transiting through this territory possibly may end up in bonded labor and  in situation of labor exploitation.

This country actually has a public institution that was specifically created to hunt down migrants called the Directorate for Combating Illegal Migrants, that has opened 18  (64p. Altai) detention facilities around the country, I must note that the report establishes that only  15 (64p. Altai) are functional, but the interesting thing is that in the rebel held areas of the country they also have migrant detention facilities. 

Libya is the main jumping point to cross to Italy and Malta, 80%  (78p. Altai) of all the illegal boat arrivals to Italy part from Libya.

In some cases migrants are trapped in Libya not willing to cross to Europe and facing a hostile situation, and adding to this most countries have closed their embassies so  these people  cannot go to any authorities for help.

Egypt (Destination, Transit):  A over saturated with refugees, so it has become transit country to Europe, even though official actively try to stop boats from leaving there coast.

Niger ( Transit Country/ Trafficking Hotspot): Report establishes the  cities of Arlit and Agadez, as human trafficking hotspots.

Mali (Transit/Trafficking Hotspot): The city of Gao is pinpointed as another trafiking center for migrants.  

Syria (Origin country): Something that laid the ground work for the disaster that pushed thousands of Syrian  fleeing their conflict to cross by boat to Europe via Turkey , was when air travel routs started to be block in 2013 Egypt started to require visas for Syrian passengers so airlines companies wouldn't embark those who didn't have them and Egyptian authorities wouldn't issue them, in 2014 Algeria and Libya followed the same example, leaving Sudan as the only option to travel by air and latter they would transit to Libya by land to try and cross into Europe by boat. 

Tunisia (Transit Country): The country has disarticulated most of the migratory flow through its territory especial heading towards the sea, there are  many migratory check points in the country filtering out irregular migrants.

Things that one can take away from this report:

·         It incredible to see the quagmire that the United State and Europe have created in Libya they indirectly created a springboard to access Europe. The country has ended up as a no man's land  trafficker  have really taken advantage of and established themselves.

·         The report implicitly exposes the issue that as time goes  by its hard and hard to separate migratory flows from asylum seekers and people that are being trafficked, flows are mixed and overlap one another.

·         The report establishes the need of the use of the term irregular migrants and not to use the term of Illegal migrant or illegal, which negates the humanity of the migrants and I must add it adds a level of menace, inclination towards the criminal, to these people that in general are searching for a better life. The term illegal's is used by ill intention politicians to scapegoat on these people, to gain politically.

·         When one reads this report must understand it referring to Mixed Migratory  heading for Europe, it has migrants, refugees and involuntary migrants / victims of trafficking all marching together using the same routs. 

·         The report explains that Dublin III regulations establish that the first country where migrants set foot in is where they have to petition for Asylum or has gotten his fingerprints for Eurodac, and only one claim per person. This regulation plays a important role during the migratory crisis during 2015, when Sweden and Germany unilateral decide to not apply it. 

·         The report actually  works on the concept of what is a Migrant, with a series of interviews that are real eye openers. Basically the Report implicitly establishes that the  idea of Economic Migrant is a over simplification that people not only move over financial/economic needs and physical security issues, but also  that they have  a need of auto-realization, they want a education,  they feel that their lives go nowhere and must migrate to be able to study and/or do something with their lives.  Many of these migrants can make ends meet, but want to grow as people, they want to tap into their true potential or be able apply skills that they have learned and have grown tired of their respective countries instability or lack of opportunities. 

·         Report cites Easterlin's Paradox to explain that income doesn't determine if a person migrates, I got to look that paradox up. 

·         In other cases the Report establish that migration is actually culturally predetermined, it's expected of you to migrate, it's literally a rite of passage.

·         It very interesting to see how Algeria is almost never mention in the report it like a black hole, Altai and the IOM most not have had access to their information and statistics.

The Bad:

·         The report is so well summarized at the beginning that it almost redundant to read the rest, the only novelty of the rest of the report  is that it digs deeper in a statistical level, and you get to read the interviews.

T