The problems of illegal immigration- does Spain have some of the answers?

On 22^nd August, the 56-meter-long British-flagged superyacht, ‘Bayesian’ sank in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Sicily, after being hit by a storm while anchored. The yacht was carrying 22 people, including the yacht's owner, British tech billionaire Mike Lynch, and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah. Fifteen people survived, but seven bodies were later recovered.

This sad event commanded vast media attention, especially in the UK, which was home to Mike Lynch and his family. There were newspaper front pages and regular network TV news up-dates of the various missions to locate the wreck and rescue those that had been lost. 

Last month, a boat carrying 300 migrants, mostly from Gambia and Senegal, capsized off Mauritania. More than a dozen died and at least 150 others went missing.

This tragic event commanded very little coverage indeed. There was barely any mention on the British media at all. All lives lost at sea are especially tragic and The Gambia is a member of the Commonwealth and has a long association with Britain, but this wasn’t enough either to register with news-desks in the UK. 

The double standards applied to these two tragedies, says a great deal about attitudes to migrants. Western politicians know only too well that illegal migration can only be seriously reduced and controlled if; a) the root causes of migration are tackled and b) the gangs who exploit those desperate to flee at almost any cost, aren’t dealt with. The first requires real effort and resources, as well as much more serious and protracted efforts at conflict resolution, especially in Sudan, Mali and Libya. The second requires a lot more cooperation between the countries from where people ae leaving and the countries to where they are heading. 

This week Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the small West African nation of The Gambia. This was as part of a trip to three West African nations aimed at boosting cooperation in controlling irregular migration from the region to Spain via the Canary Islands, which is where so many of the boats head. More than 22,000 people have disembarked on its shores since January, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry, more than double the number of irregular arrivals for the same period last year.

This was the first time a Spanish prime minister has visited The Gambia, a small country of 2.7 million inhabitants, whose official language is English and which became independent from Britain in 1965. But before arriving in Banjul the capital, Sánchez began his tour in Mauritania, where he said Spain would renew cooperation between the two nations’ security forces to combat people smuggling. From there he travelled to meet with leaders in Senegal. Among migrants making it to the Canaries are thousands of Malian refugees fleeing violence and instability in the Sahelian nation as well as youth from Senegal, Mauritania and other West African countries who are seeking better life opportunities. There are also increasingly more teenagers and children traveling alone to the Canary Islands, which has overwhelmed the local government responsible for their care.

The Spanish Prime Minister may have promised more resources for security and enforcement, but he also opened up the possibility for more legal, temporary migration – although he gave no real details. “Spain, my country, wants to give a new impetus to our relationship with Africa,” Sánchez said. Suggesting that there could be more opportunities for legal entry into Spain as one of many answers to the problem of irregular and illegal immigration will of course be controversial, but might it also work?

*Mark Seddon is a former Speechwriter to UN Secretary-General Ban ki moon & former Adviser to the Office of the President of the UN General Assembly