IJPSD

ISSN: 2360-784X

 International Journal of Political Science and Development
 

International Journal of Political Science and Development

Vol. 8(8), pp. 371-381, October, 2020. 

DOI: 10.14662/IJPSD2020.270

ISSN: 2360-784X

Full Length Research

Migration and Refugees Crisis in Africa: Issues, Challenges and Prospects.

¹MUSTAPHA, Ayodele Haruna, ²MUSA, Toyyib Olaniyi, ³ENIKANSELU, Adebayo and ⁴AKINROLABU, D. R.

¹Department of Social Sciences, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria.

Corresponding author’s E-mail: harunmustapha721@gmail. com

²Department of Social Sciences, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State. E-mail: olaniyitoyyib@gmail.com

³Department of Social Sciences, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State.

⁴Department of Social Sciences, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State. E-mail: akinrolabu.raphael@gmail.com

Accepted 18 October 2020

Migration and refugees problems are key issues that have manifested imbalances and instability on the African continent in recent time as people take unreasonable risks in search of greener pastures outside of the continent and in the process, they are exposed to grave hazards and life threatening situations including death on the high sea. The forces that drive migration include: natural disasters, droughts, earthquakes, famine, religious persecution, political repression, civil wars, regime change, sit-tight syndrome among African leaders, climate change, poverty, economic restructuring, power and ethnic politics among others. The prevalence of refugees is the resultant effect of forced or voluntary migration from one location to another. The inability of African leaders to put a stop to this menace is a serious cause for concern as there are no concerted efforts to address its immediate and remote causes. The centrality of this problem was put in sharp focus when in 2019, the African Union Summit was tagged ‘Refugees and the internally displaced.’ That theme was meant to call the attention of African leaders to the collateral damage associated with migration and refugee problems. This paper attempts to x-ray the effect of colonialism, the whimsical partitioning of Africa in the Berlin conference of 1885, the economic /structural affiliation of the periphery to the centre while African leaders are seen as agents or puppets of neocolonialism. The paper also examines the role of Nongovernmental Organisations (NGOs), UN and AU as partners and collaborators in the implementation of sustainable development programmes. The paper utilizes secondary data while it adopts migration and refugees theories as its theoretical frameworks to midwife the study. The paper recommends selfless leadership and good governance, transparency. Accountability, sustainable development programmes and burden sharing among others as part of panacea to uncontrolled migration and acute refugee problems in Africa.

Keywords: Citizenship, Human Security, Internally Displaced Persons, Sovereignty, State Fragility.