Refugees Daily - Internal Global Press Review

AS THE UN marked World Refugee Day last week, the migration of Africans to the EU has been greatly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, about 40'000 Africans attempted to access Europe across the Mediterranean Sea, with 739 deaths occurring.

Between January and June this year, only 3'638 Africans crossed the Mediterranean into Europe, with 277 deaths reported. By June 23 this year, Africa had recorded 315'380 Covid-19 infections, including 8'339 deaths, while Europe (including non-EU states) had an estimated 1'518'251 confirmed cases, including 174'968 deaths.

A recent webinar, The Impact of Covid-19 on Africa/EU Migration, was jointly hosted by the University of Johannesburg's'(UJ) Institute for Pan African Thought and Conversation and the Sweden-based Nordic Africa Institute.

Dr Ahmed Bugre, a Malta-based adviser to the AU Commissioner for Social Affairs, discussed how relations between the AU and EU have been impacted by Covid-19, particularly in terms of Africa/EU migration governance, and how migration patterns are affecting political and economic relations between the two organisations in light of the pandemic.

Dr Franzisca Zanker, a senior research fellow at the Arnold-Bergstraesser Institute in Germany, discussed the implications of Covid-19 for Africa/EU migration in relation to human rights violations and labour patterns.

When Covid-19 reached pandemic proportions by March, 42 African countries issued travel bans and closed their borders as a way of curtailing the free movement of people and the transmission of the virus.

This has changed the trend of Africa/EU migration. In May, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres released a policy brief which stated: "The 25.2 million African refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons and stateless people are among those most vulnerable to the virus."

The EU has lacked a co-ordinated response to Covid-19, despite its disproportionately negative impact on migrant labour and remittances sent back home.

According to the report, remittances – a crucial revenue source for some countries – are projected to decrease by 23% under Covid-19.

Six key policy recommendations emerged from the webinar:

First, the AU must prioritise public health issues in implementing its 2018 Protocol Relating to Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of Establishment; second, AU governments must devise a viable programme of repatriation for migrants from Europe; third, the EU has a human rights obligation to craft effective legal pathways that inform resettlement programmes for African migrants; fourth, Brussels must revise its policies relating to the use of cheap African labour in precarious work; fifth, there must be a narrative change that takes into account the voices of African migrants and governments and, finally, the AU must construct new policies that can simultaneously promote equitable migration and increased trade within Africa to reduce the incentives for continued migration to Europe.

Maggott is a research co-ordinator at the UJ's Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation