It has been revealed that in the last two years over 5,000 Nigerians have died whilst migrating to Europe through Libya and Morocco.
In a speech by Dr Buno Nduka, Director of the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa, he also disclosed that over 300 Nigerian girls are in various prisons in Senegal, serving jail terms for their supposed involvement in criminal activities or being forced into prostitution.
Dr Nduka was addressing an audience at the Annual Public Lecture Series in Benin, Edo State, and added that there had been an increase in the participation by youths in several income generating crimes, such as kidnapping, currency counterfeiting, robbery, smuggling, environmental crimes, bribery and corruption, assassination, illicit drug trafficking and money laundering among others.
Migration to Europe has been an age-old trend, but recently casualty numbers have begun to dramatically increase due to rising conflict and severe drought on the African continent. It is forcing many to take the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to mainland Europe.
In 2016, over 5,000 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa died attempting to make the crossing – and with smugglers using lower-quality vessels, and packing more people onto boats, experts have warned that the number of casualties will continue to increase.
The news of 5,000 Nigerians falling victim to the unpredictable Mediterranean sea in the last two years will not be a complete surprise to government officials. The volume of migrants attempting to reach Europe has made newspaper headlines for much of these recent years, it only begs the question on when the next report will reveal how many more have lost their lives, and from which countries.
