President John Dramani Mahama has slammed the hypocrisy in global migration policies, noting the unequal treatment of refugees from different regions of the world.
Mahama slammed Western nations’ swift acceptance of Ukrainian refugees but showed reluctance toward Africans displaced by war and climate crises.
Speaking at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, September 25, Mahama stated, “I want to draw particular attention to the conflict in Sudan, which this body has described as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Twelve million people have had to flee their homes.
When we speak of migration, we refer to the 12 million new refugees, whom we, as a global community, should be willing to assist in much the same way that many member nations readily assisted new refugees from Ukraine.
Let’s dispense with euphemisms and dog-whistles and speak frankly. It’s not a mystery that when leaders of Western nations complain of their migration problems, they are often referring to immigrants from the Global South”.
He added, “Many of those migrants are climate refugees. Interestingly, the Global North emits 75% more greenhouse gases than the Global South. However, the effects of climate change are more severe in the Global South because we lack the resources to address them effectively.
So, when the desert encroaches and our villages and towns become unlivable, we are forced to flee.
Warsan Shire, a Somali-British poet born in Kenya to Somalian refugee parents, was London’s first Youth Poet Laureate. She writes in her poem titled “Home”.
Mahama boldly declared that cruelty, hatred, xenophobia and racism cannot be normalised.
President Mahama added, “We cannot normalise cruelty. We cannot normalise hatred. We cannot normalise xenophobia and racism.
If we are going to tell a story, let’s not tell it slant. Let’s tell all the truth”.
Mahama further urged a balanced narrative on migration, pointing to the successes of immigrants of African descent.
He added, “When we speak of migrants, we speak of Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, a judge on the US District Court for the Central District of California. She is the first Black female judge on any of California’s four federal district courts. She was born in America to immigrant parents from Ghana.
We speak of Peter Bossman, a medical doctor born in Ghana who moved to the town of Piran in Slovenia in the 1980s. He later became the first Black mayor of Piran, the first Black mayor in Slovenia, and in the whole of Eastern Europe.
We speak of T-Michael, the iconic Ghanaian-Norwegian artist and designer, and the late Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, who was born in Ghana but spent his adulthood in various places in America and Europe.
These are people who have brought great distinction to the countries that they call home. Just as the migrants and the children of migrants before them did. These are not invaders or criminals”.
Also, President Mahama further declared that Africa will no longer tolerate the persistent exploitation of its natural resources.
He added, “The days of parcelling out vast concession areas to foreign interests for exploitation must come to an end”.
“We will continue to welcome foreign investment, but we must negotiate better for a bigger share of the natural resources that belong to us.”
“We are tired of the continued image of poverty-stricken, disease-ridden rural communities, living at the periphery of huge foreign-controlled natural resource concession areas. We are tired of having people extract the most they can from us and, in return, offer us the very least by way of respect, consideration, and dignity,” he emphasised.