A crisis which cannot be ignored because it is affecting everyone, everywhere

Whether we call them economic migrants, or people fleeing persecution, the tragic consequences of the African migration crisis has affected everyone, everywhere.

•  Some 15,000 African men, women and children have lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea since 2015, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
•  The families of those who have died will never see the bodies of, or bury their loved ones. The victims have already been buried at Sea or in unmarked graves in Molta and all along the Mediterranean Sea coast.
•  Unknown numbers of migrants have been abused and or sold in the Libyan slave markets, according to the United Nations Security Council.
•  Humanitarian rescue workers are being traumatised, having to witness pregnant women and children dying or dead, according to UN agencies.
•  British Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups are experiencing a sharp rise in race and religious hate crimes since the June 2016, according to Home Office figures.
•  In the UK, community cohesion is being been adversely affected with many people reporting feeling unable or unwilling to talk about African migration, fearing that they would be labelled “racists”.
•  Established political parties in the UK and in the other EU member states are losing support to populist parties, which are campaigning an anti-immigration platform.
•  Many more people are likely to be affected in the coming years and decades. With the African population increasing by more than 3% every year, many more people are likely to be forced by political and environmental disasters to flee to Europe for many more decades to come.

The only people standing to benefit from African migration crisis are people smugglers, who are reportedly making $10,000 to bring one migrant to Europe.