Myths of Migration From the Horn of Africa to Europe and Europe’s Response to Migrants

By Genet Getachew and Mekdes Besha

Human migration involves the movement of people from one place to another with the intention of settling, permanently or temporarily at a new location. In most cases people regularly or irregularly migrate aspiring to find a better life.

The Horn of Africa (HOA) is among the major sources of irregular migrants in Europe. Deaths in the Mediterranean for reasons such as a lack of economic opportunity and the expectation to find better livelihood opportunities elsewhere are among the major migration drivers in the region. However, the conversation surrounding migration from the Horn of Africa to Europe is misdirected due to myths and misrepresentation of the facts on the ground. The horrendous condition of migrants from the Horn of Africa is further intensified by Europe’s harmful response to the migration process. Europe’s efforts on migration are targeted at trying to stop people from moving. Rather than understanding the root causes of migration from the region such as extreme poverty and lack of survival choices, European countries treat illegal cross-border movement as an issue of law enforcement. Cognisant of these issues, Includovate conducted a webinar on December 17th 2021, with the intention of commemorating International Migrants Day and discussing the myths associated with migrants from the HOA and Europe’s harmful response to migrants that intensified the appalling conditions of migrants. The webinar also identified the broad range of factors that continue to mislead people within the migration management and factors that worsen the process for migrants. The webinar was attended by over 50 participants comprising researchers and practitioners.

The first speaker, Dr. Kiya Gezahegne who is the Policy and Rights Portfolio Lead at Includovate, addressed three common myths about migration from the Horn of Africa and assessed their validity.

The Migration Crisis

When migrants move from East or West Africa to Europe it is for opportunities that could be offered for their families and seeking for a better life. However, by the receiving country or the transit country it is considered a crisis so there is a mismatch in understanding. Migration is regarded as a crisis in discussion of migrants or in disaster reporting.

Due to the misunderstanding of migration as a crisis rather than understanding the root causes of migration most interventions designed are misguided and focused on stopping mobility of migrants and keeping them as far as possible from borders, which turned out to be impossible. For instance, the European Trust Fund, which is funded by the EU (European Union), is working on migration from Ethiopia and East Africa migrants focusing on stopping irregular migration and making it safe and orderly. Its activities, unfortunately, focussed on keeping people away from the border and stopping cross border mobility. However, all its actions to keep/stop movement of people proved to be in vain.

Informed Decision vs Misinformed Migrants

People in migration management are under the impression that most migrants are not well informed about the situation, risks and vulnerability they will face while involved in illegal migration. Migrants are portrayed as people who chose to take part in a horrifying journey due to lack of information about the dangers in illegal migration. However, the discussion with migrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia showed Kiya that almost all of them are informed about the extent of risks and danger they will face. They are aware of what to expect and some even try to avoid or reduce damages of anticipated risks and vulnerabilities from the beginning of their journey. Dr. Kiya Gezahegne gave the example of a 14 years old girl from Tigray in Northern Ethiopia, that they used contraceptive methods to reduce one of the potential outcomes of sexual abuse they may face in the process of illegal migration. Others may travel with their male relatives or they may choose to travel under brokers from their locality for the sake of protection.

Generalised understanding vs Contextualised Reality

There is an assumption that migrants are a homogenous group of people but there are migrants from Ethiopia, from Eritrea and from Somalia who faced different experiences and the level of vulnerability is different based on age, gender or any other background and identity. For example the demand from brokers differs based on the origin country of migrants. They may ask more money from Eritrean Migrants than the Ethiopian migrants because brokers are under the impression that the Eritreans have relatives based in Europe and can afford to pay more. As a result it is difficult to draw generalities about migrants.

In general, the discourse around the migration crisis ignores the benefits and resources that migrants bring. Understanding misconceptions regarding migration and migrants is crucial in guiding interventions and solutions in the right direction for a sustainable change in the lives and livelihoods of migrants.

The second speaker, Dr. Marta Welander, who is the Principal Researcher for Inclusive Childhoods and Adolescence at Includovate, discussed Europe’s harmful response to migrants by focusing on three main areas.

1. Inhumane living conditions and state neglect at transit points

Migrants face extremely bad living conditions at transit points and border zones. In some places, such as the Aegean Islands in Greece, people are stuck in overcrowded camps, and have their onward movement restricted. In other places, such as the French-Italian border, the UK-France border and various European capital cities, migrants experience widespread destitution, and a lack of basic services such as proper sanitation facilities. Police brutality and violence are also among the daily realities witnessed at such transit points.

2. Obstruction of access to European Asylum procedures to keep people far from borders

Access to the asylum system is a right under international law, and an obligation for states under the 1951 Geneva Convention. However, many European states have sought to block people’s access to the asylum procedures by stopping people at borders and instead relying on third states to take care of the migrants.

Whilst outsourcing the responsibility for asylum applications to other countries, European states oftentimes turn a blind eye to human rights violations perpetrated by those countries. For example countries like Italy collaborate with Libya by investing money and training the Libyan coast guard just to pull migrants back to Libya when they try to cross the Mediterranean. Meanwhile on the western Mediterranean route, Europe has struck a deal with Morocco to contain prospective asylum seekers and stop them from approaching European borders. In doing this, the third countries commit several human rights abuses which are ignored by European countries.

The obstruction of access to asylum procedures includes pushbacks at the borders, oftentimes with high levels of violence and denial of safe and legal routes to seek asylum in some countries such as the UK.

3. Criminalisation of Solidarity

A lot of people who stand up for the rights of people (the point being that migrants are people) have been ‘criminalised.’ Laws ordinarily used to tackle trafficking networks have been used to target and intimidate human rights activists in Europe who were standing for the rights of people.

Faced with an overall inhumane European response to asylum and migration, many people in Europe have taken a stance against it in the shape of both humanitarian efforts, such as support on the borders, and in large-scale advocacy and policy work. The presentations raised several interesting questions and insights from the participants. The topics made people think about inclusion, migration policies and its implementations.

About the Author

Genet Getachew is junior researcher at Includovate. She received her BA degree in accounting from Rift Valley University in 2019. A tenacious human rights advocate, Genet wants to take part in making the world free, just, and safe for those in society who are currently discriminated against. When she is not working, Genet enjoys spending time with her family and reading about what’s going on in the world. She can speak Amharic and English.

Mekdes is working at Includovate as Data Entry and Administration Officer, she graduated from Addis Ababa University in Economics and also has an MA in sociology. She has been working in the local and International Organisations on Gender Equality and recently she is working on Emergency Response Programmes for IDPs at international organisations. In the future she wants to work and contribute to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.

Includovate is a feminist research incubator that “walks the talk”. Includovate is an Australian social enterprise consisting of a consulting firm and research incubator that designs solutions for gender equality and social inclusion. Its mission is to incubate transformative and inclusive solutions for measuring, studying, and changing discriminatory norms that lead to poverty, inequality, and injustice. To know more about us at Includovate, follow our social media: @includovate, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram.