Senegal announces plan to tackle illegal migration

Senegal announced a 10-year plan to tackle illegal migration on Thursday, following a recent surge in migrant-related deaths.

The country aims to “drastically reduce the phenomenon by 2033” with its new National Strategy to Combat Irregular Migration (SNLMI), according to Interior Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome.

“We need to step up our initiatives and set ourselves new targets to improve our results”, he added, hailing the gains already made in the fight against this “dangerous phenomenon”.

The SNLMI will have five focuses: prevention, border management, repression measures (against traffickers), measures to support and protect migrants, and the return and reintegration of irregular migrants. 

The plan will be financed by the national budget and external partners. Authorities have yet to reveal the total cost of the scheme. 

Deadly migratory route

The Canary migrant route, an entry port to Europe via the Atlantic Ocean, has seen an uptick in activity in recent weeks with a rise in numbers of migrants leaving the coasts of Africa’s north-west.

As numbers of migrants rise, so too the numbers of deaths. 

Senegal has seen several tragedies over the past two weeks. 16 migrants died on Monday when their boat sank off Dakar, while on July 12, another boat capsized near Saint-Louis killing at least 14. 

Morocco’s navy recently announced it had rescued nearly 900 would-be irregular migrants between 10 to 17 July, the majority of whom were from sub-Saharan Africa. 

On July 20, President Macky Sall asked the government “to step up controls in potential departure zones and sites, but also to deploy all surveillance, awareness-raising and support measures for young people” by strengthening public programs “to combat clandestine emigration”.