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Femi Akomolafe Correspondent
THE routine response when discussing the crisis of African migrants dying at sea is: Why do they risk everything, including their lives, in order to escape a continent supposedly on an upward trajectory? Femi Akomolafe dissects this contradiction with specific reference to the reality immigrants face on the ground, once they have reached the “greener” pastures.

We hear of how most of Africa’s economies are growing very fast almost on a daily basis. The World Bank, IMF, global financial institutions, leading economists and African governments themselves, cannot get enough of the Afri-optimism buzz, telling whoever will listen that seven out of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world are in Africa. Among ordinary Africans these days, pontificating about impressive macro-economic figures and jargon is done not only with gusto, but also with a great sense of pride.

The positivity is palpable.

But just as Africa remains the best-endowed continent, with the most mineral wealth, the disturbing paradox is: Why does a continent said to be on this positive trajectory, also have such a high number of people who are desperately fleeing it in search of a better life elsewhere? Why is the extremely dangerous migration by sea, seemingly on the rise?

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says that between May and September 2014, more than 3 000 would-be immigrants have drowned in the Mediterranean – many of them Africans.

The IOM estimated that the 2014 figures already represent nearly four times the number of immigrant deaths that occurred in the Mediterranean Sea last year.

As hyperbolic as it may sound, Joseph Muscat, the Prime Minister of Malta, described the Mediterranean as a “graveyard”.

In the past two decades, about 20 000 people are said to have drowned while trying to reach Europe – the majority of them African.

One of the worst tragedies occurred in October 2013, off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa, when more than 360 Africans – mainly from Eritrea, Somalia and Ghana – drowned during one of the most heart-rending episodes to appear in public media. But that was death in the Mediterranean alone.

Many more unaccounted-for Africans perish trying to cross the treacherous Sahara desert en route to North Africa, looking to try to cross into Europe through the Mediterranean. Many more lose their lives in the Sinai in a desperate attempt to reach Israel.

So what is so attractive about Europe compared to the “rising” Africa?

What exactly do African migrants expect once in Europe?

And what is the actual reality they find and experience once they get there?

It is not an exaggeration to say the true reality is that, just like anywhere else in the world, Europe does not offer the proverbial manna from heaven!

The Ghanaian example

For many Ghanaians, a lack of jobs is identifiably one of the main reasons their highly skilled population looks to Europe. Yet the Ghanaian government will stop at nothing to gush about the country’s economic successes.

Many Ghanaians have, however, sadly already died or are at risk of dying in the Sahara and in the Mediterranean, as they try to migrate to Europe and chase what are in reality non-existent jobs there.

Three years ago, a Dutch film production house made a documentary about the life of Ssuuna Golooba, a Ugandan immigrant in the Netherlands, titled “Surprising Europe”.

The documentary was later showcased as a mini-series on Al-Jazeera.

Ssuuna was a photographer with a Ugandan newspaper who caught the travel bug, left his well-paying job and went to the Netherlands, hoping for a better life. He ended up doing odd jobs that did not even begin to challenge his education or intelligence.

Like all undocumented immigrants, Ssuuna was in constant fear of being arrested by the Dutch police – the penalty being instant deportation. The pittance he earned cleaning public and shopping mall toilets was not enough to pay his rent and utilities.

In the meantime, the family he left behind in Uganda did not see it that way, and always pestered him for money.

“Surprising Europe” beautifully captured the struggle African immigrants go through in Europe.

There were scenes about the efforts people make to obtain the almighty EU visa, including invoking divine intervention at churches.

What surprises most is that after the vivid portrayal and harrowing experience of Ssuuna in the film, such lessons fall on deaf ears among many Africans, who believe Europe is a nirvana of prosperity.

A section of students interviewed at Makerere University at a post-screening session of the documentary candidly said that nothing would deter them from pursuing the goal of reaching Europe, to try their own luck.

The same fatalistic attitude is very common in Ghana (where this writer lives and hails from).

Over 40 000 Ghanaians reside in the Netherlands, where many of them have been doing menial jobs for several years with absolutely no better prospects for their future.

Their tales are as harrowing as those portrayed by Ssuuna Gooloba in “Suprising Europe”, yet many Ghanaians are resolute in their determination to seek what they think are greener pastures in Europe or other parts of the world.

The country was hugely embarrassed during the last World Cup in Brazil when about 180 supposed football fans asked for political asylum, claiming political persecution.

Political persecution in Ghana! Since then, many embassies have flatly refused to grant visas to Ghanaian sports supporters.

In the Netherlands, where this writer lived for a while, the common lamentation in the Ghanaian immigrant community was, “had I known, I would have stayed home”.

Once the hassles and the hardship have come to bear, and the reality of suffering as an immigrant, with basic pay or no job at all, many immigrants get stuck in the situation as they are unable to even afford a plane ticket home.

Some are so embarrassed to return home “empty-handed”.

Of course there are also highly-skilled Africans such as doctors who have moved to mew pastures in Europe or other parts of the world, where they earn better pay than in their home countries.

As the saying goes, there is no place like home.

The challenge for Africa is to abandon the devastating neo-liberal policies and devise new economic paradigms that will allow its people to benefit from the continent’s abundant and wealthy natural resources, that by and large have helped develop the very countries in Europe (not so richly endowed) to which Africans are fleeing for perceived economic benefits.

Africa has abundant mineral wealth. As such, bad policies are to blame for creating the misery of Africans fleeing their continent as economic refugees.

• Femi Akomolafe, a noted Pan-Africanist, columnist for the Ghana’s Daily Dispatch, Modernghana.com, and regular contributor to the New African magazine, has published two books on the continent. This article is reproduced from NewAfrican.