African-French Summit Tackles Immigration

BAMAKO, December 3, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – African leaders and French President Jacques Chirac opened a two-day summit here on Saturday, December 3, aimed at tackling illegal immigration and the problems of Africa 's youth.

"Together, Africans and Europeans, we have a duty to dismantle the illegal immigration networks, behind which hides an appalling and mafia-like traffic," Chirac told the opening of the two-day summit, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Together, we must encourage co-development and enable Africans to enjoy decent conditions for living and working in their own countries," he told THE African leaders.

"It is also a matter of urgency to conquer poverty, to allow the emergence of a middle class, to put the talents of the elites to good use," said Chirac, who turned 73 this week and is on his first trip outside of Europe since a week-long hospitalization in September for a vascular disorder.

All 53 African states are, for the first time, represented at the Africa-France Summit, taking place for the 23rd time since 1973.

As well as Chirac, more than 20 African heads of state attended the opening in the Malian capital, Bamako.

They included South Africa's Thabo Mbeki and recently-reelected Omar Bongo Ondimba of Gabon.

Problems facing Africa's youth is the official theme of the gathering, but informal talks are expected to cover conflicts on the continent such as in Ivory Coast and Sudan's Darfur region.

Concern over immigration has been heightened recently by the deaths of a number of sub-Saharan immigrants trying to enter Spain 's north African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

Easing Visas

France will ease the issuing of long-term visas for African business people, researchers, teachers and artists, Chirac said.

He called for "the opening of a special area of exchange between France and African countries, notably francophone".

The activities of business people, executives, researchers, teachers and artists are "by nature, linked to the exchange," Chirac said.

"I have decided, on a suggestion by the Malian president, to ease for them the issuing of long-term, multiple-entry visas. It's indispensable for their activities."

Development aid

Chirac said he would seek to convince the European Union to increase development aid to Africa.

"In the space of 10 years, such aid will have more than doubled," he told the assembled African leaders.

"I have personally committed myself to convincing the European Union to take the same step between now and 2015."

The French leader also stressed that Africa must "take its rightful place in international trade, especially in agricultural products".

He went on: "African farmers must receive a fair reward for their work. We cannot accept a situation in which hasty and generalized liberalization of agricultural trade ruins the efforts of the least developed nations".

Trade ministers head to Hong Kong on December 13 to discuss flagging World Trade Organization negotiations on further breaking down barriers to world trade.

Chirac invited states to come to Paris in February to discuss new ways of financing development.

France plans to tax airline passengers up to 40 euros (47 dollars) per ticket from 2006 to help pay for health programs in the world's poorest countries.

Collective Effort

Mali's President Amadou Toumani Toure said the problem involved countries of departure, transit and destination.

"We must combat trafficker networks, but also agree on a better organization of migratory flows," he said.

He quoted a projection by the International Organization for Migration, according to which, if current trends continue, one African out of 10 will live outside of their homeland by 2025.

Toure also cited the figure of 16.3 million migrants on the African continent, underscoring that they also went to other African countries as well as rich nations.

But he said conditions must be improved to keep young people at home.

A message on behalf of African youngsters was read out by a young ecology activist, Marie Nkom Tamoifo of Cameroon, urging leaders to work to improve conditions for young people.

Sixty percent of Africa's population of 830 million is aged under 25 in a continent wracked by poverty, where the UN says 320 million people survive on less than a dollar a day, and ravaged by AIDS and war.