ECOWAS on
Wednesday said it would not take lightly the maltreatment of its citizens
across countries in Northern Africa.
The
president of the ECOWAS Commission, Marcel Alain de Souza, said this this while
presenting the Status Report on the State of the Community to the Second
Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja.
De Souza was
represented by the commission’s vice president, Edward Singhatey.
Following
the presentation of the report, parliamentarians raised concerns over efforts
made by the sub-regional bloc to investigate reports on African migrants being
maltreated and sold into slavery in some North African countries, notably,
Libya.
Some members
of parliament also expressed concerns over the requests made by Tunisia to be
an observer country and Morocco to be a member of ECOWAS respectively, in spite
of reported abuse against African migrants in those countries.
The
commission’s president, however, called for thorough investigation of such
reports and judicial enquiries to be made to ensure that perpetrators of acts
of abuse were brought to justice.
“The problem
is that at this point in time, we do not have anything official from Morocco or
Tunisia. We hear about it but there is no proper or thorough investigation and
there is nothing documented.
“With regard
to their inclusion in ECOWAS, they will be bound to ensure that they look after
our citizens within their shores; but at the end of the day, there is no
guarantee with regards to that.
“Through
engagement we will be able to put our interests forward to ensure that these
states know that we do not take likely the maltreatment of any of our community
citizens and what is happening across North Africa right now is unacceptable.”
He further
urged member states to continually condemn the maltreatment of African citizens
in Libya.
According to
him, the bloc has commenced the assessment of the situation and sought
assistance from the international community to repatriate and reintegrate
citizens.
He also
reiterated that there were several measures put in place by the bloc to
skilfully engage the youth to curb the illegal migration.
“We do not
know how many exactly of our youths are in Libya or where all of them are
because we understand that some of them are being held in different detention
centres.
“We do not
have enough funds to go to Libya and bring them, so we have written to the
International Organisation for Migration for immediate and urgent assistance.
“We are still
trying to stop the tide of youths flowing northwards; we have to keep them
(youths) by giving them reasons to stay and find decent living for themselves.
“But if we
continue this trend with very little funds, there is also very little we can
do. We are constantly engaging our donours to try to immediately do something
for us.”
He further
said that the ongoing European Union-African Union Summit in Abidjan sought to
address the challenges of illegal youth migration and terrorism.
(NAN)
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