EU-Africa migration policy shift: Cooperation or coersion?

Time of India

22-07-2025

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The European union (EU) commission has proposed conditioning development aid for African and other third countries on their cooperation with migration enforcement. Under the Global Europe instrument, aid allocation may now depend on how well a country cooperates with returns, readmissions, and border controls.
Internal EU documents cited by the Financial Times and Reuters state that countries that do not comply with deportation agreements could see aid slashed. The move has led to criticism from humanitarian organizations, with Oxfam calling it a "distortion of the EU's development goals" and a "short-term political fix" to deeper structural issues.
The policy shift comes amid mounting pressure within Europe to curb irregular migration across the Mediterranean and Sahara routes.
The pressure is particularly intense in countries like Germany, Italy, and Greece, where national governments face increasing domestic opposition to asylum-seekers.
A damaging message
Policy experts and scholars across Africa are condemning the policy shift, calling it coercive and neo-colonial. The EU's approach, they argue, is likely to undermine both sovereignty and trust.
"Stop your people from migrating or lose aid — sounds to me like a message of cohesion and not cooperation," Maria Ayuk, a postdoctoral researcher in peace and security at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg in Germany, told DW.
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"This reduces the African nations to border guards rather than equal partners in development. The EU is securitizing, and has over the years politicized, migration."
She added that, "what the EU is doing is forcing Africans to keep people in Africa, because they are afraid of the 'Africanization' of Europe."
Ignoring root causes of migration
While European policymakers often emphasize "pull factors" such as jobs and security, African analysts say greater attention is needed on the conditions driving people to migrate in the first place.
"People will definitely have the urge to move," said Fidel Amakye Owusu, a Ghana-based geopolitical and security advisor. Some of the main drivers are "socioeconomic problems, rural-urban development gaps, abject poverty, conflicts, and unemployment," he told DW.
Paul Ejime, a media and global affairs analyst, agrees: "They are leaving because the environment […] is not conducive." Ejime also noted that "poverty, hardship, and instability" are pushing Africans to risk their lives in search of livelihoods.
"Shutting the door or building walls is not the solution."
According to Ayuk, governance failures are a part of the problem. "We have several autocratic leaders that want to stay in power forever. These are core issues we have to address," she told DW.
Experts are of the consensus that Europe's trade practices and foreign interventions have directly contributed to instability and economic underdevelopment in Africa.
These conditions, they argue, further drive migration.
"Europe's extractive trade policies, arms exports, and selective interventions [...] have contributed to instability and insecurity, and of course underdevelopment, fuelling the very migration it seeks to prevent," Ayuk said.
"Most of the health personnel in these countries are in Europe and America. The health sector is poorly funded, under-resourced, and the personnel they have are leaving the country," Ejime noted.
The problem is exacerbated by what he says are Europe's double standards: "They can open their doors for people from Ukraine. But when it concerns Africans, they tighten the rules."
Using aid as a political weapon
The EU's tactic of conditioning development aid on cooperation with its migration objectives is also perceived as exploitative.
"Yes, I think that the EU is tying aid to migration control," said Ayuk. "It weaponizes it and it shifts aid from solidarity to self-interest."
She said that such an approach "undermines trust and mutual respect" between Europe and Africa.
Ejime added that, "they have always done that."
"At times, they come up with conditionalities when they want to give you any support," he told DW.
African leadership under scrutiny
While sharply critical of the EU policy shift, the three experts who spoke to DW agreed that African governments bear significant responsibility for the crisis and the tough immigration policies towards their citizens.
"Africa is the problem, because it lacks the international agency," said Ayuk. "Those that are supposed to represent Africa do not represent the collective interest of Africa, but rather the individual interests of elites."
Some experts are calling on African leaders to redefine the terms of negotiations with the EU.
"Unfortunately, they are negotiating from a position of weakness. They are weak. The economies are weak.
Politically, they are not even popular in their own countries and some of them are corrupt," Ejime said.
"In the past, under slavery, Africans were forced to go abroad. Today, young people are the ones running away, because the environment is not conducive."
Is there any leverage left for Africa?
Despite their critiques, the experts believe Africa is not powerless. They maintain that the continent's strength can only come if it can mobilize political will.
"Africa has the potential, and leverage exists," Ayuk said, pointing to the continent's resources and regional blocs. "But Africa requires unified leadership and a shift from dependence to a self-defined development."
Owusu sees a need to harness technology and ensure effective management of national borders. "Many African countries lack the technology to patrol all their borders. It is very difficult to manage such borders and control the flow of people."
However, he warned that the EU's approach could be counterproductive for countries making genuine efforts. As Europe grows more insular in its migration policies, some African countries may begin to pivot toward alternative global partnerships, for example with BRICS countries or other Global South initiatives, as Owusu pointed out.
He suggested that, if Europe continues using development aid as leverage, Africa could deepen ties with emerging powers like China, India, Brazil, and Russia.
"The more [the West] looks inwards for solutions, the more confrontational their policies become, and the more Africa moves towards the East," he said.
But Ejime proposed a different approach: "Africa needs to be strategic, maximize its own interest, and negotiate from a position of strength." He added that, "if skilled workers go abroad, maybe there should be a kind of agreement or contract that sends money back to develop the health and education systems."
Transactional aid risks long-term damage
The experts agree that the current EU model that links aid to migration control, risks damaging long-term relations with Africa and fails to address root causes.
"Migration should be managed, yes, but not securitized or politicized. We need reciprocal relations based on respect, equity, and justice," Ayuk said.
Owusu also emphasized the need for mutual respect in achieving desired outcomes. "Europe must stop seeing Africa as the problem and start treating it as a partner," he told DW.
Ejime turned the spotlight back on Africa and the need for effective leadership: "Africa is not zero-poor. It's poorly managed. And has been impoverished by bad leadership."