The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the current state and prospects of partnership between the East African countries and the European Union on migration and forced displacement. The pandemic has exacerbated the root causes of migration and forced displacement. This is manifested by the continuation of irregular arrivals in Europe including from East Africa, after a brief decline in the initial phase of the COVID-19 response. The strong economic impact of the pandemic on the region has also disrupted the implementation of the Global Compact on Refugees that aspires to address forced displacement challenges through facilitating refugees’ self-reliance. These challenges require East African countries and the EU to work towards establishing a better migration governance system with a people-centred approach and with a view to addressing the root causes of migration. East African states should drive their migration and forced displacement policies in ways that benefit their citizens. This should include devising ways of engaging the EU in line with its proposed talent partnerships in its New Pact on Migration and Asylum. The EU should work towards easing the economic burden of countries in East Africa including through providing additional development support and debt cancellation.

Paper prepared in the framework of the project “A New European Consensus on Asylum & Migration”.

 

Read the full paper here.

This publication first appeared on the IAI site. 

Author: Tsion Tadesse Abebe and Ottilia Anna Maunganidze, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) based in Addis Ababa. Views expressed are the authors’ alone.

Photo by Robert Metz on Unsplash.

The views are those of the author and not necessarily those of ETTG.