As over 2,000 await repatriation from Europe, many more languish in detention And many European communities get unsettled by illegal immigrants

The President of Ghana and the Chairman of the AU, John Agyekum Kufour states that migration is the mainstay of his county’s economy as it netted over US$8 billion by the close of last year alone. This excludes monies sent by Ghanaian immigrants to their families, relatives and friends through informal channels. But the Europeans Union has a different view of migration.

Whilst the US$8 billion assertion by the Ghanaian President has long been disputed and rubbished by the World Bank and other research think-tanks as overstatement, the European Union has now started taking steps to rein a president who lacks the brainwave to accurately grasp the effects of migration on the youth of his country; whose policy on migration is completely deficient without a clear-cut direction in relation to his economic and political philosophies. And, most of all, his personality is in dearth of inspiration which is an important tool in politics to reinvent the wheels even where the way forward is hazy, so he is unable to convince even the most fickle mind of the desert-dwellers to stay.

Britain, which is an important destination for Ghanaian immigrants and an essential voice in the European Union , is known to be an apt and convenient supporter of the Ghanaian leader. But it is clear that immigration related issues in that country and wider Europe are reaching their boiling points now with local populations becoming very unsettled, according to the BBC. This, in fact, is compelling politicians and policy-makers in that country and wider Europe to rethink their immigration policies.

In an unofficial statement, the queen must be saying to the Ghanaian President: ‘Kufour, the pomp and pageantry associated with dinning with the queen is over, your boys are dying crossing the desert and they are unsettling our local populations, wake up to their plight and find them something meaningful to do. With this, they will stop nerve-racking our local populations’. Beyond this statement is also the fact that, characteristic of the British people, unlike their Ghanaian counterparts, they will demand accountability from their elected leaders. And, if migrants are their source of worry, they must have answers to their worry. It is for this reason that Britain and wider Europe are taking steps to solve the immigration problem in their countries.

The socialist Nicholas Sarkozy’s immigration policies in France are already creating a lot of unease among African immigrants including Ghanaians across Europe. The recent visit of a 12-member delegation of the European Commission headed by Mr. Andreas Von Mettenheim is, therefore, a precursor to educate the Ghanaian leadership on brain drain and wider migration related issues.

Mr. Spirlet, a member of the delegation, said migration, which used to be no issue in the world, had suddenly started to attract attention of governments because of the large number of people who wanted to migrate due to poverty, unemployment and stagnation in economic fortunes in their countries, for example, Ghana.

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