It is practically impossible to find out exactly how much foreign aid has been handed to African countries in real terms by the developed economies of the world. Photo: Jana Asenbrennerova/ReutersIt is practically impossible to find out exactly how much foreign aid has been handed to African countries in real terms by the developed economies of the world. Photo: Jana Asenbrennerova/Reuters

The Valletta Summit on Migration was, if nothing else, a resounding success in terms of showcasing the island’s historic beauty and relevance to Europe despite its size. It was also a positive outcome for Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and the government and should be congratulated. But it looks increasingly like another purely rhetorical exercise by the EU executive council with no tangible result.

It was clearly an expensive exercise in both time invested by Europe’s decision makers and resources. The question is, was it just another capricious exercise in global public relations like the previous summit or did something substantive actually come out of it?

Last year’s summit had produced little more than motherhood statements on peace and prosperity which had no impact on ethnic and political conflicts in many parts of the African continent. Those charged with policy development in Brussels, intoxicated with their own unrealistic ideals and intent on levelling the global pitch between the haves and the have nots but totally bankrupt of pragmatic solutions, have inflicted real harm on Europe’s security with their lack of decisive action in dealing with uncontrolled illegal migration mostly involving migrants lacking the most basic criteria for refugee status.

Little wonder the UK and others are reconsidering their membership of the Union. Now that the adjectival fog has cleared, let’s examine some facts and figures about Africa.

The perennial question of more Aid for Africa is nothing new. There is unquestionably abject poverty in large parts of Africa which should be unacceptable to the rest of the civilised world but the economic imperatives driving illegal migration from sub-Saharan Africa are absolutely and distinctly different from the monstrous persecution and sheer survival issues driving the entire population of Syria towards European borders.

These are separate problems which require different treatment. While no amount of foreign aid will change the situation in Syria, let’s just dwell on the subject of foreign aid to Africa generally. It is practically impossible to find out exactly how much foreign aid has been handed to African countries in real terms by the developed economies of the world. This is due to a number of reasons.

Economic aid to Africa, particularly from the leading super powers, is often coupled with strategic interests. On closer inspection real aid allocation is not always consistent with rhetorical reporting in terms of its application to development and future improvement in the economies of the recipient countries. For example, the construction by the US of a military airfield in South Sudan or the Chinese high-tech, newly-constructed military camp in the Marange diamond fields of Zimbabwe involved complex and expensive infrastructure but not necessarily aimed at improving the economic lot of the indigenous population.

In short while foreign aid to Africa is difficult if not impossible to quantify accurately, it is reasonably safe to say it may be measured in hundreds of billions over recent decades.

There is little doubt that aid is urgently required in parts of Africa and also little doubt that billions of dollars in foreign aid cannot be accounted for

Much of that aid has been plundered by African heads of state, military chiefs and their cohorts. African heads of state are now very expert in opportunistic ways of tugging at the heart strings of the EU. If they were equally adept at good governance, Africa would be a different place.

Niger’s President Issoufou made the Dickensian plea for more at the Malta Summit but omitted to mention one or two facts pertinent to the allocation of foreign aid. For example, just last year a court in Niamey ordered the investigation of the disappearance of $800 million from the nation’s treasury. Another little snippet he omitted to mention was that a recent government report into people smuggling concluded that corruption in Niger was so entrenched and so institutionalised that in order to tackle the issue of people smuggling through Niger, they would have to replace the nation’s entire police and military forces.

So given that Niger is one of the keystone countries in the lucrative business of people smuggling, just handing over more money is unlikely to stem the export of people to Europe. There is no question Niger is a poor country despite its natural resources but its track record in managing and administering foreign aid is abysmal and not conducive to responsible donors adding to their exposure without addressing the core problem inside Niger itself.

That is just one example. The EU has offered nearly €2 billion to Africa as an emergency aid fund with pressure on individual member states to equal that again between them. A sweeping gesture by the EU power brokers bereft of logic. What about aid to those EU states bearing the brunt of this crisis?

Greece in particular but also Italy, Spain and to a lesser extent Portugal are facing additional drains on their respective economies from the influx of illegal migration from sub-Saharan Africa at a time when their own people are facing high unemployment, increased taxation and other bitter financial pills to straighten out their own domestic balance sheets.

The EU Council instead chose to ignore the distress pleas of fellow members particularly Greece and inexplicably asked member states to dish out another €2 billion for no other reason than to assuage the increasing demands from Africa in a futile effort to buy the elusive panacea to people-smuggling into Europe.

This course of action implies EU leaders are more concerned about the political fallout from increasing illegal migration than they are about human suffering and the parlous state of genuine refugee camps at points of entry into Greece. Italy and Spain are also affected. We are clearly confusing voluntary aid with extortion by certain African states.

Wherever we look in Africa there is corruption on a mass scale. A 2013 report by the European Court of Auditors made the farcical discovery that £500 million donated to Egypt to fight corruption had been plundered without trace, among other EU donations. The litany of blatant corruption in Africa covers the four points of the compass and knows no end.

Issues associated with foreign aid to Africa are not new. There is little doubt that aid is urgently required in parts of Africa and also little doubt that billions of dollars in foreign aid cannot be accounted for. The EU, now panic driven to find solutions to the pressing political problems associated with illegal migration, came to the consensual conclusion that making huge sums of money available to regimes with a poor money management track record would solve the problem: an unlikely outcome.

The West must act to relief cases of most acute poverty in Africa but must also find ways to do so under the most stringent accounting controls and direct financial donor management to ensure aid doesn’t end up disappearing with no effect on the underlying problem.

It has taken the innocent lives of many scores of people for the slowly dawning realisation that turning a benign blind eye for a year or two to illegal migration from Africa may well have significantly compromised the internal security of several European countries and contaminated them with radicalised Jihadists.

Europe is now clearly home growing its own terrorism. So much for the human rights of law-abiding citizens of Europe.

A way needs to be urgently found to care for and stabilise Syrian and other genuine refugees who must above all else be stringently security cleared.

Illegal economic migrants from parts of Africa with no basis for refugee status must be sent back to their country of origin without delay and further aid of all classes to those destinations must be subject to the cooperation of those countries whose nationals have contravened the migration laws of Europe. Sending back opportunistic illegal migrants is the one and only way of sabotaging the sordid and inhuman business of people smuggling.

Anthony Trevisan is a businessman passionate about local environmental issues.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.