The Senegalese security forces are organising a patrol to combat illegal emigration.
Several African migrants held by traffickers in Libya have been freed by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s men.
African states continue to implement strategies to curb the illegal immigration of young people to Europe. In Senegal, a joint patrol of army and gendarmerie units, known as ‘Djoko’ (Union of Forces in Wolof), has led to the arrest of 453 people from different countries on the continent since 15 August, according to the Directorate of Information and Public Relations of the Armed Forces (DIRPA) on X (formerly Twitter).
These people, who include would-be migrants and members of smuggling networks, break down as follows 239 Senegalese, 145 Guineans, 32 Gambians, 17 Malians, 7 Bissau-Guineans, 6 Ivorians, 3 Nigeriens, 2 Comorians, 1 Mauritanian and 1 Congolese, according to the same source, who added that the units are carrying out joint patrols to prevent illegal migrants from leaving the Senegalese coast.
These arrests show that many young Africans still believe in the European Eldorado, even if this dream is often considered illusory by migrants already present in Europe.
Despite this perception, the former remain determined to reach European shores in order to improve their living conditions, as they no longer have any hope of success in Africa.
Apart from the Senegalese coast, other migrants prefer to go to Libya or Morocco to try to reach Italy or Spain. In Libya, however, they often fall prey to networks of traffickers who detain and abuse them and then demand ransoms from their families.
In recent days, the Libyan National Army (LNA) announced that it had freed more than 1,000 illegal migrants held by a network of traffickers in the Schweirif region in the southwest of the North African country, which has been divided since the death of Gaddafi in 2011.
Most of them are from sub-Saharan Africa and were being held in a huge den belonging to a gang of traffickers, according to the ANL, which said it had carried out a large-scale operation to free the people, including women and children, before taking them to safe havens.
ODL/te/sf/lb/as/APA