In the wake of the revelations of the American channel CNN on the trade of African migrants in Libya, some African states have jumped and taken real measures with the assistance of international organizations to repatriate their compatriots trapped in this country, where the man is still wolf for the man in this 21st century. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the European Union are accompanying Cameroon and Cote d'Ivoire respectively, who have already brought home hundreds of their compatriots. What about Togo?
Togolese among the thousands of migrants sold at auction in Libya?
Last August in Sokodé, we found with the administrative authorities that 08 out of 10 young people in this region swear on the hope of an adventure to the so-called European Eldorado. More and more of them are relying on the principle that their efforts, their daily survival initiatives, would be very well rewarded in Europe. Very active networks of smugglers are in full activity in the northern part of Togo and recruit hundreds of our young brothers and sisters, that they engage in the adventure towards the West whose road passes by Benin via Natitingou, then Niger, to Libya where we all know the fate that is reserved for them. It must be said again, it is a course of combatant, an adventure where one rubs death and the worst barbarities of the nature (the desert, the hunger,, reports the Secretary General of the Association of Togolese Nationals in Bavaria (Germany) Mr. Babadéré Fofana.
Last year, Nicolas Berlanga Martinez, the previous ambassador of the European Union in Togo, deplored the fact that among the thousands of migrants arriving on Italian shores for the year 2015, there were at least 300 migrants of Togolese origin.
Also in the same year, the Turkish newspaper "Hurrieyet" announced a boat flying the Togolese flag taken in Turkish waters with aboard 300 illegal migrants, 11 alleged smugglers Syrians and 4 Turks.
"We have been repeatedly alerted on ships registered in Togo that do not respect international rules. The European Union, Israel and other friendly countries have seized on this issue, " acknowledged Faure Gnassingbé in 2015 citing cases of trafficking in arms, drugs, tobacco, but especially migrants.
For Babadere Fofana of the Association of Togolese Nationals in Bavaria, "all these cases show enough that among these thousands of young people sold at auction, there are hundreds of Togolese who surely feel forgotten while other states activate to bring their fellow citizens out of this hell. "
Libya, a hard-to-reach state
Even though the international community has recognized a faction to which diplomatic privileges have been granted in search of timid reactivations of embassies in strategic countries, Libya remains an unauthorized state where, like a jungle, the most heavily armed law.
We asked ourselves at the level of the Togolese diaspora in Bavaria, to whom our compatriots including Heads of State addressed their messages of condemnation of the trade of Africans in Libya. This is already an enormous equation for the authority recognized by the international community to prevail against the looting of Libyan oil by the armed factions. This country has always been since the elimination of Muammar Gaddafi, fertile ground for armed groups in this case Boko Haram and the Islamic State, the black beasts destabilizing Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria, " surprised Babadéré Fofana.
It should nevertheless be noted that this state of affairs has not prevented Cameroon and the Ivory Coast from chartering several special flights to catch hundreds of their compatriots.
The fate of Togolese migrants
On 17 November, Faure Gnassingbe, President-in-Office of ECOWAS, pronounced on the subject: At the news of human trafficking taking place on the African continent, particularly in Libya, I am speaking on behalf of ECOWAS my bitterness and my indignation. Nothing can justify in this twenty-first century, such infamy .
The indignation of the Togolese head of state stopped there. In Togolese society, some noises on social networks, verbal convictions, then the page now seems turned.
Hypocrisy
Long before CNN, national newspapers, such as the biweekly L'ALTERNATIVE, have drawn political attention to the fate of Togolese adventurers in the European Eldorado. This did not attract any interest.
In Lebanon and the Middle East, girls in Togo, like those in other sub-Saharan African countries, are subjected to degrading inhuman treatment, resold from households to households where they serve as sexual objects, after which they perform endless hours of housework.
Many die as fellow Amélie Sizing, whose body was repatriated in November 2016 from Lebanon where the conditions of his death (October 17, 2016) have never been elucidated. Dozens are often innocently accused and thrown into jail without any other form of trial. Testimonies in the newspapers, as well as survivors who have returned by chance to the country, abound in the great indifference of our skilful authorities in loud statements to make a good impression.
"At the level of the diaspora in Bavaria, we receive alerts and cries of distress. But our means of support are very limited unlike the government which has the diplomatic means. Especially in Eastern countries like Lebanon, where the state operates unlike Libya, our political leaders can use diplomatic pressure to promote better treatment of our compatriots who go there in the hope of finding better and sending money to their families in the country (because there are also quite a large number of Indians and Lebanese doing business in Togo). One can even as a state request the accompaniment of the humanitarian organisms for voluntary repatriations. There are many of them, these sisters today in Lebanon who are eager to return to the country,Advocate Babadere Fofana.
He added that it would be bad faith for the Togolese authorities to behave as if the Libyan case was the only occasion by which they learned the enslavement of our compatriots in search of better living conditions, outside our borders.
We work with organizations like Belamni the bell of peace and Visions Solidaires who are very involved on the theme of migration. No more than last August 17, we still had exchanges during a seminar in Sokodé. We have created this framework to allow the diaspora to remain in close contact with our brothers and sisters in the countries, just to reveal to them in view of our experience, the realities on the European side. It's always better for young people to be informed in advance. Thus, they will not be fooled by these smugglers, sellers of illusion , recalls Babadéré Fofana who projects:"A road map has already been concocted to rescue those of our compatriots already in the mouth of the wolf, from Agadès to Tripoli through Natitingou, Malanville, Dosso, Gaya, Zinder ... in the horn of Niger. It is a project that appeals to the support and contribution of all stakeholders, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Regional Integration. If the state has failed at some point in relation to its responsibilities, they must seize the opportunity to give to its fellow citizens, a reason to be proud of their country Togo.
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