Author: Stephen Adaawen

The EU’s Response to the Refugee Crisis: More Support for ECOWAS Migration Management Needed

Image: Boat

Migration-focused policies needed

The EU emphasizes the mainstreaming of migration in development cooperation as a crucial issue to finding lasting solutions to irregular migration. The EU’s approach to the crisis focuses on supporting national and regional migration strategies and a ‘cash-for-cooperation’ conditionality strategy setting financial incentives to increase readmission of African migrants. But a considerable option for better migration management may be the promotion of an effective regional migration within the African continent in a development-friendly way. That would mean to establish or to strengthen migration regimes and institutions, which are capable of protecting migrants and enhancing the positive effects of migration like remittances or knowledge transfer.