We, participants from Africa during a two-day consultation on migration, have discussed a number of issues on the theme: “The New Faces of Migration in Africa – Root Cause, Challenges, Perspectives from the Second African Synod and the Role of the Church in Africa”.

We are grateful to SECAM and ICMC for having organized this important meeting which brought together participants from 22 National and Regional Episcopal Conferences of Africa, resource persons from within and outside Africa. We were also honored by the presence of His Eminence, Polycarp Cardinal Pengo, President of SECAM and Archbishop Gabriel Mbilingi, Second Vice President of SECAM and Chairman of Justice Peace and Development Department of SECAM as well as the President and Secretary General of ICMC, Messrs John M. Klink and Johan Ketelaars, respectively.

We wish to address this message to the international community, ICMC and to ourselves as Africans.

Root causes of migration
In the last fifty years or so the people of Africa have faced enormous challenges regarding migration. The root causes of migration within Africa and towards other countries in Europe, North America and the Middle East lie more on poor governance, bad economic policies, socio-political injustices, wars, religious conflicts, poverty and lack of employment opportunities. It is estimated that there are about 200 million migrants throughout the world with a quarter of that number coming from Africa.

To the international community
Inasmuch as we appreciate the problems that face a number of countries that have a high influx of migrants and their rights of such states to curb this phenomenon, we wish to remind them of the basic human rights as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 13: (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state, and (2) that everyone has the right to leave any country including their own. We therefore condemn the many prejudices and maltreatment that are meted out against migrants particularly those from Africa. We are appealing to the countries concerned to apply their laws on migrants justly and fairly. They should not just build barriers to prevent people from migrating but to urge the developed countries to help African Countries solve their economic and socio-political problems.

Please see the pdf below to read the message in its entirety.

Message issued by the African participants of the SECAM-ICMC Consultation on migration (59.67 KB)