# taz.de -- Migration policy in Ivory Coast: Getting out at all costs | |
> Ivory Coast has long been a popular target country for immigrants from | |
> West Africa. These days, however, many want to leave the country, | |
> especially young people. | |
Bild: Cocoa beans are an important export good in Ivory Coast | |
Ivory Coast, currently inhabited by about 23.7 million people, has a long | |
tradition as an immigration country and has been particularly attractive to | |
migrant labourers from Burkina Faso. According to a national census from | |
1998, the 3.4 million Burkinabé were by far the largest group of | |
non-Ivorians. Many have been living in the country for decades, frequently | |
working in cocoa cultivation. Ivory Coast is the world's largest producer | |
of cocoa, with an annual production of around 1.7 million tons. The | |
Burkinabé are regarded as a cheap labour force and, compared to native | |
workers, are often poorly trained. The great majority of them works in the | |
informal sector, which gives them scant legal rights. | |
According to various statistics for the years 1998 to 2006, as many as 7.8 | |
million immigrants in total may have lived in Ivory Coast in that period. | |
However, the World Bank estimated just 2.4 million immigrants in 2010. The | |
United Nations Population Division (UNPD) assumes that this number is | |
decreasing and will continue to fall. Numerous immigrants have been leaving | |
the country because of its many political crises since the year 2000. | |
Immigration has been present in Ivory Coast since the beginning. Yet under | |
President Henri Konan Bédié and his concept of Ivorité starting in the | |
1990s, an emergent xenophobia has been on the rise. The current president, | |
Alassane Ouattara, was excluded from the 1995 elections since his parents | |
supposedly had immigrated from Burkina Faso. The issue of nationality is | |
still a major problem in Ivory Coast today, confirms political science | |
researcher Arsène Brice Bado, who works for the Centre for Research and | |
Action for Peace in the business metropole of Abidjan. | |
In any case, in 2010 great numbers of Ivorians became refugees themselves. | |
Following a run-off election in late November – in which ex-president | |
Laurent Gbagbo refused to concede his office to Alassane Ouattara, leading | |
the country into severe conflict which left more than 3,000 dead – 250,000 | |
people departed for the bordering country of Liberia. According to the UN | |
refugee agency UNHCR, as of mid-2016, a solid 20,000 Ivorians were still | |
living in the neighbouring country. Another 11,000 Ivorians remain in Ghana | |
today. | |
## New migration | |
Beyond that, however, hardly any further data is known on migration to | |
neighbouring countries, or to Europe, as stated in “A Survey on Migration | |
Politics in West Africa“ by the West African economic community ECOWAS. Up | |
to 1.2 million Ivorians could still be living abroad long-term. Silvère Yao | |
Konan of the University Félix Houphouët-Boigny called the former colonial | |
power of France the most important target country in Europe in 2009, with | |
26 percent of the migrants. The majority – at least 65 percent – also | |
leaves the country permanently. This means that a majority of migrants | |
remains abroad for at least five years. EU claims that 80,000 Ivorians | |
currently hold residence permits there. 7,000 new residence permits are | |
issued per year. | |
UNHCR estimates that three percent of migrants and refugees who reach | |
Europe by crossing the Mediterranean are currently Ivorians. In 2015, 7,712 | |
Ivorians applied for asylum; the approval rate globally was 13 percent. | |
Italy ranked in first place, followed by France and the neighbour country | |
of Ghana. Germany ranked in fourth place with 548 applications. The rate of | |
repatriations was at 14 percent. A Frontex report claims that in 2014, | |
about 25,000 visas were issued to the Schengen area. However, the quota of | |
rejections was 28 percent. | |
Since 2015, migration has become a subject of hefty debate within Ivory | |
Coast itself. This is related to the fact that 60 percent of the population | |
is under 25 years old. Despite having had a good education, in part, the | |
majority of them can't find regular employment upon entering the job | |
market. The 2015 economic growth rate of just 8.5 percent didn't help | |
matters. Since the economic situation in neighbour countries tends to be | |
even worse, they don't present themselves as likely targets for migration | |
to find work. Multiple events organised by entities such as the General | |
Direction of Ivorians Abroad (DGIE, Direction Générale des Ivoiriens De | |
L'Extérieur), which belongs to the Ministry for African Integration and | |
Ivorians Abroad, are intended to make young Ivorians aware of the dangers | |
of overland migration. | |
## Biometric compilation | |
Five months after the Valletta Summit of November 2015, a meeting was held | |
in Abidjan between Foreign Minister Abdallah Albert Toikeusse Mabri and his | |
Dutch official counterpart, Bert Koenders. The Netherlands held the | |
presidency of the EU council at that time. The EU found that Ivory Coast | |
was still lacking an approved national strategy on migration policy. This | |
national strategy would supposedly form the basis for Ivory Coast's further | |
co-operation with the EU and also for the implementation of the Valletta | |
goals. | |
Koenders has also negotiated an agreement for the EU with Ivory Coast on | |
combatting illegal migration. The intent is to develop an effective | |
strategy for a systematic return of migrants, who also “should be | |
discouraged from putting their lives in danger“. Outcomes were to be | |
announced by the end of the year. | |
Within the 11th European Development Fund, for the years 2014 to 2020 a | |
total of €273 million has been allocated to be distributed over three | |
areas: Fortifying the state and securing peace, including funding for | |
agriculture and the energy sector. With €139 million, this takes the | |
largest share of the funding. The EU Trust Fund for Africa, in any case, | |
does not see Ivory Coast as a priority nation. | |
In 2009, Ivory Coast introduced a biometric passport. Those responsible for | |
issuing them included the nation's Corporation for the Issuance of | |
Identification Papers, and the Zetes Corporation, founded in 1984. Both | |
were also responsible for the biometric visa introduced in 2013, which can | |
be applied for and paid for online. Upon entry into the country, it is | |
issued and pasted into a passport. | |
Overland, border control – at least with neighbouring Liberia and Guinea – | |
remains difficult to impossible. During and after the election crisis in | |
late November 2010, for example, supporters of ex-president Gbagbo | |
frequently could flee to the Liberian side. Dense forests, untracked by any | |
paved roads, make the region hard to control. Especially during the rainy | |
season, the slopes become nearly impassable in some places. According to a | |
customs official on the Ivorian side in October 2011, residents there | |
rarely used the official transition points, preferring to cross the green | |
border. | |
13 Dec 2016 | |
## AUTOREN | |
Katrin Gänsler | |
## TAGS | |
migControl | |
## ARTIKEL ZUM THEMA |