Political corruption and economic migration
The latest report from Transparency International, the Berlin-based non-governmental organisation committed to fighting global corruption, makes interesting reading. As you can see in this edition of Africa Week, TI has focused on political corruption. We
We believe that fighting political corruption should be a concerted effort by countries throughout the world. It is clear from the TI report that if this issue is not tackled head-on, there will be instability in the global system. Former US President Jimmy Carter stressed the point when he wrote in the TI report: "Democracies can no longer tolerate bribery, fraud and dishonesty, especially as such practices disproportionately hurt the poor."
Hurting the poor. This is very crucial because the result of corruption is to create so many poor people in the world. And it is because of poverty that people move to other lands in search of a better life. Yes, migration today is due to the fact that people are facing reality and moving abroad for economic reasons. Yes, it is correct to call these people economic migrants. But what is wrong is for the Western media to not put in context the reason for economic migration.
People in their right minds do not just pack up and leave the relatively security of their environment to move to another society that is alien to them. But if they feel that they can benefit from that foreign society, why not take the risk?
What we are saying here is that if Western countries want to stem the flow of economic migrants, they must make sure that politicians and public servants in countries of high migration act in a transparent manner and curb the tendency to raid state coffers. As the TI report clear states, these rapacious leaders, such as Suharto of Indonesia, Mobutu of the former Zaire and Abacha of Nigeria, all used Western banks to hide their ill-gotten gains.
Western businesses are equally guilty of complicity. They not just offer huge bribes to foreign politicians and public servants, but they also facilitate the movement of stolen funds to Western banks. Peter Eigen, the chairman of TI, makes the point when he said: "[Political corruption] has been sustained by the complicity of Western banks and the active bribe-paying of multinationals, in particular in the fields of public works, arms and defence, and oil and gas."
If Western banks and businesses are party to global corruption, it is obvious that citizens of countries affected will look elsewhere for economic salvation. And if it happens that they flock to countries where ill-gotten gains are stashed, then do Western politicians have the right to complain about economic migration? What they must do is to discourage Western banks from keeping stolen money.
But this is easier said than done. As TI noted in its report, although the secretive Swiss banking code was made open in the 1990s, it has not been easy to penetrate the system. This has been a major problem for the Nigerian government, which has been searching for the billions stolen by Abacha.
Most of the money was kept in infamous Swiss bank accounts but when the Nigerians approached the Swiss authorities, all sorts of arguments were put up in order to frustrate Nigeria's attempts to get the Abacha funds repatriated. But, as TI reports, at the end of last year, the Nigerian government managed to get the Swiss to release $618 million that Abacha had salted away. However, before the money was repatriated, the Swiss forced an undertaking from the Nigerian government to invest the money on improving education, health, agriculture and infrastructure.
That is rather rich, if we may say so. Didn't the Swiss know in the first place that the money was stolen? Didn't they know that the money was meant to do all the things they are now asking the Nigerian government to do with the repatriated funds? Why didn't the Swiss show such righteousness when they were accepting Abacha's loot? The holier-than-thou attitude of the Swiss on the issue of Abacha's stolen funds does not wash with us.
Switzerland, which has been the repository of choice for politicians looking for somewhere to hide their stolen wealth, has of late seen nationalists making political gains on the back of immigration. But have these politicians explained to their people why economic migrants flock to Switzerland? They presumably want to partake of the Swiss cake that has been baked with ingredients from corrupt politicians around the world.
Another feature of the TI report is the contribution by Mary Robinson, the former High Commissioner for Human Rights. She writes: "Corruption produces human rights violations, and affects many lives."
Indeed, when money that is meant for social development projects is stolen and kept in Swiss banks, the human rights of those who should benefit from these projects are being violated. They are being denied the right to basic amenities, which is the duty of the government to provide.
It is clear that something has to be done on the issue of corruption if the movement of people across borders is to be controlled. So when the Western press writes about economic migrants without discussing the context in which this migration arises, it is not helping the issue of corruption. Mary Robinson makes this point clear in her contribution to the TI report. "From the anti-corruption perspective, analysing corruption in the light of its impact on human rights could well strengthen public understanding of the evils of corruption and lead to a stronger sense of public rejection."
Indeed. It does not help if the issue of corruption and economic migration is discussed in a superficial manner. In a manner, as Robinson explains, that does not help the public in understanding this phenomenon of our age.
Corruption and economic migration are inextricably linked and until something is done about corruption, the issue of migration will continue to dominate the headlines in Western countries.
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