mihou
Rang: Administrateur
Nombre de messages : 8092
Localisation : Washington D.C.
Date d'inscription : 28/05/2005
 | | Africa invests to stop migrants | |
Africa invests to stop migrants
Some 6,000 migrants died trying to reach the Canaries last year
A $6bn investment package for West Africa has been announced in an
attempt to halt the emigration of young people from the region.
The West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) says the money is to be used to improve living standards.
Thousands of migrants try to enter Europe illegally each year and hundreds die on often perilous sea journeys.
"This wave of migration, it is tragedy for Africa," Amadou Diop, an UEMOA adviser, told the BBC.
"You can improve the situation of people in our
sub-region in terms of development, in terms of health, in terms of
education. If we have success in the way, it is sure that people will
have the opportunity to stay at home."
See the main routes taken by African migrants
The BBC's James Copnall in Ivory Coast says the aim of
the UEMOA's eight members is a grand one: to create a Francophone West
African bloc so prosperous no-one will want to leave.
Most of the money - about $5bn - was pledged by foreign donors and the African Development Bank as long ago as last November.
So a meeting of UEMOA MPs in Ivory Coast's capital, Abidjan, called for these grand development projects to start straight away.
Already a programme to drill 3,000 boreholes, to access water which is deep underground, has begun, our correspondent says.
This should benefit agriculture in the arid Sahel in particular.
And if people can earn money on their farms, there will
be less reason for them to swell the desperate masses living on the
edges of West Africa's big cities - and become prime candidates to seek
to emigrate.
It is estimated that last year 6,000 people died after
they took wooden boats to the Spanish Canary Islands, although many
more do make it to Europe.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6958164.stm
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