Dakar Forum: Presentation of a Project Against Irregular Migration

In the 1st Regions Forum on Migration Processes’ framework, which will be held in Dakar from the 1st to the 3rd of December, The United Regions Organisation (URO) will officially target irregular migration from Africa to Europe, as well as other regions. The program attempts, within a regional or subnational framework, to offer real development alternatives in the places of origin and transform the narrative which over time has been summarised in the mantra “Barça ou Barsakh” (Barcelona or death) by a message of hope and decent life in Africa and other countries in which peoples need to migrate. 

Irregular exodus alternatives

The project intends to act upon the structural causes that push thousands to carry out dangerous journeys through deserts and seas. In order to achieve this, decent labour in strategic sectors such as sustainable agriculture, sustainable energies, manufacturing industry, responsible tourism and digitalisation are intended to be promoted. In addition, several programs for technical and professional training are planned, with special attention given to young people and women, in order to ease their insertion in a growing labour market within their own regions. 

One of the program’s innovations will be the establishment of a Regional Development Projects Bank, nourished from concrete proposals made by URO Fogar members. These initiatives will cover everything from food security to the improvement of basic infrastructures such as water, energy and transport, with the objective of strengthening territorial economies and generating community attachment. 

A permanent dialogue forum

This project originates from the 2025 Forum, although it can be placed in a process that contemplates the existence, in a regional framework, of a Permanent Forum against Migration of an international character, and with a biannual vocation. This space will join together regional authorities, returned migrants, civil society, NGOs, enterprises and governments, African, European and from other continents, in order to reflect upon the relationship between socioeconomic poverty and migration flows, as well as evaluating the already implemented projects. 

A speech change

With this proposal, the URO aspires to change the perspective on irregular migration: from hopelessness that obliges to “migrate or die” to the possibility of “living with dignity in the land of origin”.  In Dakar’s Forum the first steps of the initiative will be exposed, platforms for dialogue with financial and technical partners will be opened, and a route linked to the Sustainable Development Objectives will be defined, especially towards the ones closely attached to gender equality and inequality reduction. 

The launch of “Yakaar, no Barsakh” establishes a turning point in interregional cooperation, placing the emphasis on the creation of opportunities in territories as the best way to slow down irregular migration.