File photo [A ship carrying a group of migrants]
Migration remains an age-old phenomenon associated with the desire of Man to change environment with the hope of improving one’s living conditions and economic wellbeing out of poverty and hardship.
Migration can be considered as the movement of a person or a group of people from one geographical location to another arising out of economic, religious, socio-cultural and political factors.
The social and economic factors are the main push factors that appears to trigger the menace of migration.
Stories abound about adventures by irregular migrants from the African continent who try perilously at the expense of their lives to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. The bottom line for such foolhardy expedition is the misconception and false hope about life and opportunities in Europe as the land of ‘milk and honey’ and all the goodies of life’.
The regrettable aspect is that, more often than not, these irregular migrants get drowned and do not arrive at their desired location.
The impression created about Europe is not always the case. There are several stories of Africans regretting after taking such trips. They only realise after their arrival that Europe is not the bed of roses as they were made to believe.
The menace of Poverty, unemployment and harsh living conditions are identified as the main push factors that lure the youth to risk their lives to embark on these dangerous journeys to Europe and the Asian countries.
It is the hope of Ghana Union Hamburg, Germany, and its partners and both national and international civil societies will help and urge authorities to formulate a Migration Policy framework to guide migration and re-integration of Ghanaians. This would enable Ghanaian migrants and recruitment agencies to be apprised of the conditions and safety persons recruited to work abroad.
Again, Ghana Union Hamburg wishes that countries in the sub Saharan region improve upon the Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) avenues for the youth. Since every economy needs enough skilled labour to bolster its growth, TVET could be the silver bullet to provide solution to poverty, unemployment, and consequently irregular migration.
Moreover, the union advocate the need for law on migration to be reinforced to deal with irregular recruitment agencies in the country.
On Migrant returnees, Ghana Union Hamburg envisions a cooperation between media, religious leaders, embassies, governmental agencies, and local and foreign NGOs to find a sustainable way to successfully reintegrate the returnees.
"We could pull our resources together to promote informed migration, skills development, and job creation for the Ghanaian youth. Also, we plead with Ghanaians to offer psychosocial support to returnees and refrain from defaming stigmatization of returnees"
