Migrant Deaths in Gabon Highlight New Prospects for EU Policy

At least a dozen African migrants drowned when their boat sankovernight off the coast of Gabon. Some analysts say such tragedieswill continue if EU policy towards Africa is not modified. From ourWest Africa and Central bureau in Dakar, Brent Latham has more.

Thecraft sank near Libreville, Gabon, leading to the drowning deaths of atleast 12 of the migrants. The bodies of the victims began to wash upon a beach of the seaside capital.

No survivors have beenfound, making it impossible to determine the exact circumstances thatled to the accident or the direction and destination of those onboard. Reports said that an identification document from Ghana wasfound with the bodies.  

Ghana's Interior Ministry said this might have been a case of West Africans trying to migrate to Gabon.

GabonInterior Minister Andre Mba Obame says there are 400,000 illegal WestAfrican migrants looking for work in oil-rich, but impoverished Gabon,which has a total population of just 1.3 million.

When some of these migrants do not find steady work, they many times reverse course and try equally dangerous trips to Europe.

Incidentssuch as the boat sinking off Libreville have become relatively commonin recent years, as Sub-Saharan Africans attempt challenging journeysto Europe by sea. The boats used usually are not designed for highseas or the number of people sometimes packed aboard them.   

TheGeneva-based International Organization for Migration said last weekthat the number of migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa to Europe issmaller than sometimes reported.  Spokesman Jean-Phillipe Chauzy wasquoted as saying "it is estimated there are tens of thousands of WestAfricans who enter European countries illegally each year, not thehundreds of thousands that is regularly stated."

But the danger of traveling the open sea means that many who attempt the journey never arrive.  

Dakar-basedpolitical analyst Boubacar Gueye says that as long as the economicconditions in Africa remain difficult, the journeys, and deaths, willcontinue. He says it is poverty that is causing Africans to attemptthe journey. He added that most of the would-be immigrants are young.  

Gueyesuggested that the European Union has a role to play in solving theproblem. He said he thinks the solution is for Africa and Europe towork together to see how to ease the African crisis and to improve theconditions of life in Africa.  

The solution, Gueye said, shouldbe proactive and not reactive. He pointed to EU initiatives thatinvolve patrolling coastal waters and returning irregular immigrants assolutions that would have little effect in the long run.  

Gueye says addressing the root causes of poverty is more important.  

AnotherSenegal analyst, Babacar Justin N'diaye, says expectations are highthat something can be done with France taking over the rotating EUpresidency.

In speeches about European-African relations,French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said he would like ties to beradically changed. Some of his projects though, such as granting visasonly to educated Africans or creating a new union between Europe andnorth Africa, have raised skepticism among many analysts in Sub-SaharanAfrica that any effective policy change will come out of the Frenchpresidency.