KAGERA BELCHES BLACK SMOKE

It is breathing down the necks of illegal immigrants. The breath is hefty, unabated and unrelenting

The immigration department of Tanzania has issued a grace period (read ultimatum) to illegal immigrants in Kagera region. (Kagera is the Tanzanian region that borders Rwanda and Burundi).

It has asked them to leave the country of their own accord or face forceful repatriation to their home countries.

The bulk of these illegal immigrants are from Burundi and Rwanda. Most of them immigrated to Tanzania during the genocide way back in 1994 and subsequent years. Tanzania has been their home in more ways than one. Other illegal immigrants are from Congo, Uganda and Kenya.

Last week the BBC interviewed some of them. They voiced their fears and said that they were being harasssed by immigration authorities. The immigration spokesperson in the area vehemently denied the allegations.

Those of them with properties that they deem will be cumbersome on the journey should sell or dispose of them, so have they been eloquently told. Those who have 'acquired' wives or husbands who are Tanzanian will be forced to acquire residence permits in order to stay with their families in Tanzania.

...Thus the sword of damocles dangles threatening to plunge. Anyone out there?!!

Rising spate of African illegal immigrants to countries in Africa and 'greener' countries outside Africa

Jacques chirac, the president who said "Africans will flood the world"

...What's the cause of this unprecedented rise?



In a TV interview, French President Jacques Chirac said nearly 50% of Africa's 950 million population was under 17 and that by 2050 there would be 2 billion africans. Quite a heave!

He intoned,rather passionately, that the wherewithal (resources and all) had to be made available to help Africa.

He said, "If we do not develop Africa, if we do not make available the necessary resources to bring about this development, these people will flood the world."

The French president stressed the need to tackle the issues with regard to immigration.

Delegates at the European-Africa migration conference in Morocco proposed tougher policing and action against human trafficking. They also proposed measures to deal with the poverty and conflict which drive Africans to seek a better life elsewhere.

Approximately 8,000 illegal immigrants aiming to enter the Euopean Union have arrived in Spain's Canary Islands since January this year. And about 1,000 would-be illegal immigrants have died attempting to reach the Canary Islands.

As this state of affairs forms and forments and unfolds, so many questions are left answered and, as I ruminate over it, I'm left in a quandary. What will come of it? Shouldn't we stop lending eye service to this issue and start thinking on its dynamics? Shouldn't Africans be given the help they yearn for instead of being'lambasted' every step of the way?

If your guess is as good(or as bad) as mine, then you'll agree with me that we've not heard the last of this yet.