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Horn of Africa Bulletin, Volume 28, No. 5 - September-October 2016: A year after Valletta: What has changed?

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Contents

  1. Editor's Note
  2. Inter-state and multilateral collaboration on migration and mobility in the post-Valetta era: Key issues
  3. The impact of externalization and securitization of border protection and asylum processes
  4. What does closing the Dadaab refugee camp mean?
  5. No Lessons Learned: Europe's unconditional engagement with the Eritrean regime
  6. The Valetta Summit and the Eritrean refugee crisis
  7. Resources

A year after Valletta: What has changed?

The current issue of the Horn of Africa Bulletin (HAB) titled ‘A Year After Valletta: What has Changed?’ is topical and timely. The large numbers of people from the Middle East and Africa fleeing conflict or poverty and heading to Europe, have generated intense media focus and policy attention from a range of state and multilateral actors. This HAB issue coincides with the one-year anniversary of the Valletta Summit on Migration held in November 2015 and which involved African and European states as well as international intergovernmental organizations such as the European Union (EU), the African Union (AU) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). This issue of the HAB also follows from two thematic issues of the HAB in 2015 that focused on issues of migration, mobility and refugee flows in the Horn of Africa (HOA) as well as HOA diasporas’ role in peacebuilding. Migration and mobility are critical issues in the context of the HOA. Intra-regional mobility is a defining feature of the HOA and takes a multiplicity of forms. The countries in the HOA are also key sources of origin and transit areas for migrants and refugees heading to Europe.

A striking feature of the current intense wave of media attention and political furore that surrounds migration and refugee flows is its tendency to ignore the realities of international migration especially as it relates to Africa. Approximately 50% of migrants in Africa migrate to other African countries. In other words, about half of Africa’s international migration is intracontinental.

There are significant regional variations between Africa’s regions in this regard.

More than 90 % of emigrants from North Africa head to countries outside Africa. In contrast, only 41 % of emigrants from East Africa, 24 % from West Africa, 39 % from Central Africa, and 28 % from Southern Africa end up outside Africa. Out of more than 3 million refugees from Africa, three-quarters are hosted in the East and the HOA. Countries in the HOA are the largest host of refugees in Africa.

The refugee crisis and issues of migration have generated intense political panic and multiple policy initiatives, particularly in Europe. The Valletta summit is a case in point. It led to the issuing of a political declaration, an action plan and the launch of much anticipated and ‘lucrative’ European Union Trust Fund (EUTF)[6] to the tune of € 1.8 billion. Since Valletta, another important outcome has been Bilateral Partnership Frameworks (BPFs), under which 16 African countries viewed as key countries of origin and transit will receive funds for projects to tackle push factors driving refugee and migrant flows. Four countries from the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan) will be recipients of funds in the coming five years under the BPFs.

A key aspect of the multiple initiatives mentioned earlier is the gap between rhetoric and action. The jointly authored article by Dr. Ibrahim Farah and Sekou Toure points to this very real gap between commitments and action. The article thus calls for greater attention to the actualization of already existing policy frameworks and agreements. Recent events support the point made in this article. A case in point is the United Nations General Assembly-hosted “Summit for Refugees and Migrants” held in New York City on the 19 September 2016 in New York City.’. The summit and the resulting ‘New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants’ have been commended for acknowledging the rights of refugees and migrants and advocating support to the countries most affected, while also being criticised for containing negligible practical commitments

The second jointly authored article by Ms. Valentine Opanga and Dr. Ibrahim Farah addresses a critical aspect of the tendency to ‘securitize’ refugee flows. Their article shows how ‘securitization’ and the increased politicization of refugee flows have steadily encroached on refugee protection principles enshrined in international law. The article also directs attention to how externalization and securitization of border controls and asylum processes incentivizes human smuggling and trafficking operations.

The article by Ms. Hawa Noor on Kenya’s threat to close the Dadaab refugee camp, considered the world’s largest refugee camp, is also insightful. It showcases both host-nation costs of taking in refugees from neighbouring countries in the HOA and the benefits or political expediency in exploiting the issue as a means to extract resources or to fan xenophobic sentiments.

The articles by Nicole Hirt and Daniel Mekonnen focus on a controversial aspect of the legacy of Valletta, and the general shift in EU engagement with governments in Africa. It has been a matter of concern in some quarters that the political pressure to act in the current context has led the EU and European governments to engage with authoritarian governments in Africa and lend support to their security agencies and border control measures to stem the flow of migrants and refugees. The articles by Hirt and Mekonnen focus on the pattern of bilateral and multilateral engagement between the Government of Eritrea on the one hand and the EU and EU member states on the other. Their articles make the point that this pattern of engagement is risky on two levels. One, this engagement disregards past lessons and experiences. Two, they argue that renewed engagement would implicitly legitimise and strengthen the policies and practices of the Eritrean government. Although this issue of HAB does not contain content that articulates the counterarguments to this line of thinking, some analysts would criticise Hirt and Mekonnen’s reasoning as supporting neo-liberal interventionism that encroaches on state sovereignty and assumes that African states invariably need to account for their human rights and governance record to the EU. This issue of HAB lets its readers be the judge on what has changed – or not changed – in the Horn of Africa one year after the much-publicized Valetta Summit and what the latest migration developments means going forward for the sub-region.