Alhaji Aminu Munkaila addressing participants at the stakeholders meeting on migration in Tamale
The Managing Director of the African Development Organization for Migration (AFDOM), Alhaji Aminu Munkaila has urged Ghanaian youth to venture into sustainable agriculture to reduce the rate of irregular migration.
His call comes as a result of the alarming number of youth from the North who migrate to the south and Europe for greener pastures due to poverty.
The Ghana Living Standards Survey Round Seven Report(GLSS7,2017) indicates that the poverty incidence in the Northern region is 61.1% compared to the national average of 23.4% whilst the incidence of extreme poverty in the Northern region is 30.7% as compared to the national average of 8.2%.
As a result of the high poverty and limited livelihood opportunities, there is a high tendency of the youth from the area to migrate to Europe or other urban centers in search of non-existing jobs.
They migrate to Europe through the desert and in the process exposed to various dangers and violations of their human rights.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that in 2016, 3,740 African migrants got drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe.
The Managing Director AFDOM, Alhaji Aminu Munkaila addressing a stakeholders meeting in Tamale on ways to strengthen border security in Ghana said AFDOM is into sustainable agriculture in the Northern regions as part of the livelihood support programmes for returnees and the youth who are interested in Agric.
“There are opportunities in Ghana here and it is left to it’s you and I to explore it, we used to see Agric as farming to feed a family but now it goes beyond that it’s now a business venture and so I will encourage the youth to go into agriculture and they should remember that it is not only traveling to Europe that you can become economically better, even the communities we stay in Ghana we can be rich if we take advantage of the resources and opportunities available to us.”
According to him, the organization has supported both returnees from Europe and North African countries such as Libya and returnees Kayayei with start-up capitals to enable them to establish their businesses.
“These people would go to Accra and Kumasi to organize themselves through “Kayayei “ to travel through the desert and the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.”
Alhaji Munkaila disclosed that they have temporal accommodation for returnee migrants at the center in Tamale and also offer psychosocial and psychological counseling services to returnee migrants.
“Before supporting them with the start-up kits, they have to undergo entrepreneurship training. We have vocational training programs at the Centre for returnees and also support people from outside the Centre to learn other skills programmes based on their choices.”
He called on the government to create an enabling environment and job opportunities for its citizens to encourage them to stay in the country instead of risking their lives on the Mediterranean Sea or traveling to the south in search of greener pastures.
“ Government has a role to play it is the responsibility of government to ensure that citizens live in better conditions and o prevent the people especially the youth from embarking on journeys the Mediterranean Sea to travel to Europe in search of greener pastures and so we have always called on the government to partner with us because the efforts we are making is to complement what the government is doing about migration and so we need financial or material support from the government to equip returnees who we give skills training to also set up themselves after the training to help us all find ways to help reduce or minimize migration.”
FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale