Women and children crossing a busy street, highlighting migration and refugee challenges in Africa and Europe.
European leaders may publicly distance themselves from Donald Trump’s hardline immigration stance, but their policies increasingly echo the same playbook—pressuring African governments to curb departures and accept deportations. The United Kingdom, for example, has tied development funding and security cooperation to migration controls, even as most arrivals come legally for work or study. Meanwhile, the European Union is advancing tougher asylum rules and faster removals, drawing criticism from rights groups. Critics, however, argue that this approach deliberately overlooks the root causes of migration, such as the conflicts and humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa. By focusing solely on sealing borders and expediting deportations to appease anti-immigrant sentiment, European policies risk destabilizing partner nations and undermining the very democracies they claim to support. For African countries, accepting these short-term deals may ultimately deepen the instability that fuels the exodus in the first place.
ISS