Why Frontex shouldn’t be abolished- Researcher Uzomah

Ngozi Louis Uzomah is the Lead Consultant of GIMBOS Plus, a Nigerian-based research firm. The Doctoral researcher from the University of Nigeria Nsukka in this interview with voiceforafricanmigrants.org,speaks about various issues affecting migration in Nigeria and Africa by extension and why the EU border agency, Frontex, shouldn’t be abolished even when calls for that are rife in different quarters.

Excerpts:

How did you get into migration and refugee research?

My migration journey to Russia, Germany and Benin Republic as well as travels to other countries of the world where I witnessed first-hand the progress and aspirations of migrants including refugees and their social and economic exclusion propelled me into migration and refugee research.

Let us look at the challenge of irregular migration in Nigeria. Would you say it is on the rise or on the decrease?

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and probably the 6th in the world according to US Census Bureau. With harsh socioeconomic conditions and insecurity emanating from bad governance, it is not surprising that the population leaving the country through irregular pathways will be high too.

What is the main driver of irregular migration in the country?
If you ask me the main driver of migration through irregular pathways, then it could be attributed to neocolonial hierarchies with economic and insecurity implications. What do I mean? When the colonialist physically left Nigeria on 1 October 1960, the economic structures that was used to syphon Nigeria’s wealth to colonial metropoles were not dismantled. More importantly, Bretton Woods organizations including IMF and IBRD with their bailouts of high interest rates continue to subjugate Nigeria to underdevelopment and rendering the PPP of the Naira very low. As a result, many Nigerians have problems purchasing their basic needs. Also, weapons coming mainly from North America and Europe via Libya into Nigeria are used by Boko Haram, bandits and separatists to cause refuge situation in the country thereby displacing many people who eventually use the irregular pathway to emigrate.
Another important driver of migrating through irregular pathways is bad governance which has caused deterioration in basic services and infrastructure in the country. Every facet of the polity is riddled with despair and corruption. The electricity supply is epileptic, and the roads are dilapidated. The education sector is also in comatose. Though the president recently announced that student loans could made available to improve access to education, that cannot not be achievable in practice. There are multiple formal and informal taxation imposed on citizens by the powers that be: Security agencies extort commuters and drivers; local government authorities collect levies from shop owners; and Agberos (touts) extort both the drivers and the shop owners. People have their limits, and at a point will not bear it no more. The next option is to leave, and due to lack of or limited regular pathways to migrate and strict migration laws in destination countries, aspiring Nigerian migrants chose the irregular means which may be dangerous, though. Of course, people have the right to migrate to wherever they want and if the restriction is too harsh, they will always find a way around it.

Do you think the government has done enough to address the drivers of irregular migration?
The government may be trying its best to tackle deterioration in education, insecurity, and economy in the country which are causes of desperate migration out of the country, but it is doing it the wrong way. Government policies and intentions may be right, but the implementation of the policies is antithetical to the yearnings and aspirations of the people. The issue of corruption at the top echelon is high and incompetent people are allowed to occupy positions due to cronyism.

What is your opinion about various government agencies in Nigeria working in the area of migration?
The government has done well in assigning several agencies in migration matters including NIS, FMOJ, NAPTIP, NCFRMI, NEMA and NIDCOM. However, from my interaction with members of their mid-level staff, I discovered that most of them either lack capacity in knowledge or have very low of knowledge in the field. This may be real or deliberate and sometimes a mixture of both. When some of us who are experts in the field try to point out certain anomalies, they they are not happy and will label us ‘I too know’.
They do not even understand that we criticize to make the system work better for migrants and origin, destination, and transit countries.
There should be deliberate effort for capacity building for the MDAs.
We have continued to have deportation of the citizens especially from Europe, what do you think is responsible for this?
I noticed myself that the spate of deportation from European countries has surged in recent times, even from Lithuania! There is an increase in securitization and militarization of borders which continues to problematize mobility and migrantise people on the move. There are tighter border controls in Africa influenced by EU externalization policies to keep migrants away before they reach Europe: The MIDAS technology is used at many borders in Africa to monitor migrants’ movement and there is the biometric exercise in Mauritania to capture foreigners’ identity as well as increase in the activities of Frontex in Senegal. There is also the internalization of borders in EU countries with a resolve to keep what they term as ‘unwanted migrants’ out of their territories. The rate of deportation is poised to increase as German politicians have agreed on ease home searches for migrants’ identity to speed up deportations; Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden in a joint press conference agreed to strengthen diplomatic cooperation and to organise joint flights through Frontex as well as deport ‘EU-bound” migrants from North Africa; and there is a proposed legislation in Belgium to confiscate passports of undocumented people to speed up deportations.

Do you think the voluntary return programmes in Europe are effective and reliable for African migrants?

I wish the programmes were effective, then most Africans will choose to return home rather than living in uncertainty abroad. The EU is pouring millions of Euros in these return programmes that are supposed to cushion the negative effect of deportation and help returnees to sustainably reintegrate in Nigeria, but this goal is far from being achieved due to lapses in transparency and accountability in their implementation. I suggest proper monitoring of how the funds are spent to ascertain the contexts and how the programs are being implemented in the countries.

We have had cases where people who applied for voluntary return were deported. What could be responsible for this?
This is a violation of their rights. Even when some refugees and migrants have their cases still pending in the court they are rounded up and deported without due process. In all the contexts, their return is said to be unorderly, unsafe and undignified which is against the provisions of GCM and violates the principle of non-refoulment.

What do you make of the inhuman treatment of Sub-Saharan Africans in Tunisia?
The remark in February this year by the President of Tunisia, Mr. Kals Saied, about Sub-Saharan Africans coming to alter the demographic composition of Tunisia to an African country that has no affiliation to Arab and Islamic nation contributes to the racist and xenophobic attacks in the country. Ironically, this white supremacists conspiracy theory has been used to exclude Tunisians in Europe and the President applied it to stoke fears and anger for political gains. This is dangerous! Additionally, it is awful that the Tunisian government has chosen to get transactional and commodify its migration practices. After the over €1B deal between Tunisian government and the EU to among others strengthen border controls, there have been more deadly pushbacks by the Tunisian Coast guards and even more deportations from Tunisia into Algeria of Sub-Saharan Africans where their belongings are robbed.

Could ECOWAS intervention in anyway have helped in addressing the problems?

ECOWAS can address the problems, but you know there is power asymmetries between ECOWAS and the EU. The EU sponsors the initiatives and thus dictates the direction of every dialogue and agreement. There have been several agreements between ECOWAS (and even the AU) and the EU, but all of them tilt towards returning ‘unqualified migrants’ from the EU to Africa. The EU Mobility Partnership is one of such and I think it is unsustainable. ECOWAS should thus be advocating for the integration of the migrants in destination countries rather than returning them to reintegration programmes that are ineffective and inadequate in for example Ghana, the Gambia or Nigeria.

Senegal and few other African countries are raising the alarm over the presence of Frontex in their domains. Does Nigeria in any way have anything to do with Frontex?
The operation of Frontex in Senegal is bad and negates sovereignty of Senegal and by extension all African countries. Senegal is being used as a rentier state to keep Africans away from Europe and at the same time send them back to the bad governance they are running away from.
For Nigeria, the Draft Action Plan for Nigeria released by the EU in September 2021 stated clearly that Frontex will have more roles to play inside Nigeria. To that respect, Frontex will be involved in training NIS in border management. What does that mean? It means because Europe is afraid of African migrations, Africans and in this instance, Nigerians should be stopped before they enter Europe. The implication is that the cross border and circular migration which has been used  by Nigerians to conduct  socioeconomic activities and escape conflicts in the continent is negated.

There have been calls for Frontex to be abolished. Do you agree with this and why?
I do not think that Frontex should be abolished. The organization should be reformed in a manner that it does not infringe on sovereignty of other countries. It could be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean or Mediterranean Sea to save migrants in dinghies, not to push them back or drown them.