Undocumented Migration in Africa: Trends and Policies
| Date | 01 April 1983 |
| Published date | 01 April 1983 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.1983.tb00457.x |
Undocumented Migration in Africa:
Trends
and
Policies
BY ADERANTI ADEPOJU*
INTRODUCTION
Undocumented migration between countries has received increasing attention in recent
years
(UN,
1980). This concern stems from the social and economic implications of
such movements for the host countries, and for the migrants themselves. Except in a
few cases, in principle and in law, a country has the sovereign right to decide who may
enter its territory and under what conditions
(Dib,
1981). In spite of this, a consider-
able amount of
(unknown)
migration across international boundaries takes place
without documentation, (passports, visas, work permits) or other formal contact with
immigration officials of the receiving country. Besides, some immigrants often con-
travene the conditions under which they were initially admitted into the country
(ICEM,
1974).
This paper is concerned with undocumented migration in Africa. It identifies the
causes of such movements, reviews the trends and patterns based on the scanty data
on
the topic, highlights the implications for the countries of origin and destination and
for the migrants themselves, and outlines the policy measures taken by governments to
deal with undocumented migration.
TRENDS AND PATTERNS
By its very nature, undocumented migration is an extremely difficult subject to deal
with
(UN,
1980). Quantitative data on illegal or undocumented migration in Africa are
fragmentary, hence the difficulty in precisely estimating the magnitude of such
migration. Where strict checks are carried out along borders
-
at sea-ports, airports
and land routes
-
it becomes feasible to detect and prevent a substantial proportion of
illegal entries. In the African situation, control at land frontiers is less effective than at
airports and seaports. This is explained partly by the lack of distinct geographical
barriers in most African countries, coupled with the problems of effectively policing
the long borders especially in countries like Sudan, Zaire, Algeria, Chad, Angola, Niger,
Mali and Libya. For instance Sudan, which
has
the largest land area in Africa and ranks
tenth in the world, shares borders with eight countries: Egypt, Ethiopia, Central
African Republic, Chad, Libya, Kenya, Uganda and Zaire. Hence, land border crossing
by migrants from neighbouring countries is sometimes not recorded; any point along
*
I
acknowledge the assistance
of
my graduate student, Mr.
Obasi,
who gathered the relevant doc-
uments and drafted part
of
this paper initially.
204
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