Do illegal migrants have rights?

Page 7: Daily Graphic, November 12, 2008.
Asks Albert K. Salia

“THE mass expulsion of non-nationals shall be prohibited. Mass expulsion shall be that which is aimed at national, racial, ethnic or religious groups” - Article 12 (5) of the African (Banjul) Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

IT is an understatement to say that in most West African countries, the legal system is inadequate to protect the rights of many vulnerable and disadvantaged groups.
In many of them, there is little or no public funding for legal aid, most members of the legal profession are concentrated in large cities and not easily accessed by large numbers of rural population while non-governmental organisations (NGO) legal services are under-funded.
To make the situation worse, much of the citizenry in the sub-region have little or no knowledge of their basic legal rights. Moreover, many in West Africa lack the economic capacity to pursue the enforcement of their rights, particularly in an environment where there were systemic challenges in the slow pace of the administration of justice in many jurisdictions and members of the legal profession are seen as resistant to voluntary or even required pro bono obligations.
The problem is compounded with concerns about corruption in the justice system which individual litigants are more vulnerable to and at the same time less well-equipped to tackle.
It is in the wake of all these that the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) launched the West African Public Interest Litigation Centre (WAPILC) to help improve access to justice for citizens of the sub-region by initiating and supporting public interest litigation in national, sub-regional, and regional courts and other adjudicatory fora.
The strategy envisages that once decided by a court or other tribunal, critical public interest litigation including good governance, rule of law and human rights issues, can benefit several others either directly or indirectly.
Through the WAPILC, a West Africa Public Interest Lawyers Forum to support individual persons and organisations advocating the rule of law in West Africa, would be established.
The centre will also facilitate information sharing between public interest litigation centres in West African countries by promoting public interest communities and networks of mutual interest and support.
The centre would maintain a documentation unit which serves as a repository of up-to-date information on contemporary human rights, public interest and constitutional issues in the region.
The facility will also disseminate regional human rights instruments on ECOWAS and UEMOA and research on comparative law and practice in West Africa with respect to public interest cases and the legal systems in West Africa.
For instance, it is a fact that the media, not only in Ghana but elsewhere in the sub-region, often give publicity to stories of deportees from other countries without the requisite questions on the rights of the deportees and whether appropriate steps were taken before deporting them.
In any case, in what conditions were they deported? What happens to them after their arrival? Indeed, most often, the deportees are threatened with prosecution but nothing is heard thereafter.
Whether we like it or not migration has come to stay and it would continue to be part of mankind. Migration has become part of globalisation and populations need to understand the impact, complexities of the phenomenon, issues that are involved in integration and how to deal with them.
Migration was a growing global phenomenon, particularly in Africa, which could only be managed if proper policies were in place.
Migration is linked to escaping from poverty to seek opportunities and security for families, which no state could stop.
Many people move to improve their livelihood options, seek opportunities and to escape poverty. Other reasons for movement of people include forcible displacement or coercion as a result of wars, violent conflicts and human rights abuses and discrimination.
Attacks, therefore, on innocent migrants and the manhandling of migrants by receiving states would not stop the phenomenon and should, therefore, be condemned.
For most people in Africa, migration has become a necessity for security, education, employment and an avenue to realise their aspirations.
The challenge, therefore, is for African governments to adopt comprehensive migration policies that will address the challenges facing migrants and citizens of receiving states.
Such a policy should include legislation and programmes to educate not only the citizenry of receiving states but also the migrants.
The framework must also address potential sources of migratory flows, structural causes of migration, absorption capacity of states, as well as integration issues in receiving states.
It is a fact that most of the migrants were young unemployed people from relatively poor countries moving for relatively better prospects and perceived prosperity for themselves and their families. Unfortunately, they are often accused of stealing jobs and competing with indigenes for other resources and public goods.
No doubt, this is often a reflection of the frustration and resentment by citizens of receiving states with their own governments, which in turn, take on migrants, seen as easy targets.
Migrants have a right to go from place to place to seek better conditions of life and also have the right to be protected by receiving governments.
Governments have the right to control the level of migration through policies and legislation in a measured way, but the absence of such a regulatory framework would make citizens think they have a responsibility to curb what they consider as a threat to their security or economic well-being.
While there has been greater integration of the global markets for goods and services, for which the international community has devised rules and regulations for flows across borders, there has not been the development of concomitant rules and regulations to effectively and efficiently facilitate the flow of humans within the global market framework.
As a result there has emerged a phenomenon of irregular migration where migrants were exposed to serious abuses and exploitation including human smuggling and trafficking and other trans-national crimes that threaten the security of sovereign states.
This has resulted in the rise of detention of illegal migrants without due process in the name of preserving the security of the state as well as the rampant imposition of more stringent visa requirements for certain groups and contributing to a climate of intolerance.
This is why every country should have a migration legislation in place and also ensure the enforcement of its laws so that those who breach the laws would be dealt with while vulnerable migrants are protected.
As the Director of the Ghana Immigration Service, Ms Elizabeth Adjei, said in a recent interview, “A deliberate and comprehensive policy framework and management are required to leverage migration as a vehicle to secure national interests”.
She said it was important that countries and their populations were sensitised to the migration cycle to enable them to appreciate the motivation for migration.
Ms Adjei admitted that the presence of migrants could cause tension, especially in countries with high unemployment rates.
Besides, some migrants could undermine a country’s culture, security, human rights, cohesion and other development issues of receiving countries.
It is for such reason that some countries insist that migrants to their countries learn their language and culture before moving in.
The bad management of migration could lead to conflicts and disintegration of states.
It is important to state that the rights of migrants do not also cease just because they are migrants. It is, therefore, imperative that human rights activists join the OSIWA initiative and support the process to ensure its success.