Focus on Africa

Why is Spain's PM in West Africa?

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is on a three-day trip to west Africa. He's hoping to curb the record number of unauthorised migrants travelling by boat to Europe via the Canary Islands. But why is migration increasing?

Also why is there a delay in paying the Kenyan police deployed in Haiti?

And what does naming of a lion, after the leader of the opposition, tell us about politics in Tanzania today?

Presenter: Audrey Brown Producers: Joseph Keen, Bella Hassan and Patricia Whitehorne Technical Producer: Jonathan Greer Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi

Duration:: 30m
Broadcast on:: 29 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Hello and welcome to this podcast from the BBC World Service. Please let us know what you think, and tell other people about us on social media. Podcasts from the BBC World Service are supported by advertising. Good taste is easy to spot, but hard to pin down. You know it when you see it. And in today's culture, there's no greater signifier of taste than the car you drive. You want something sophisticated, but not stodgy, daring yet classic, approachable, but with an air of opulence. That's where the Range Rover Evoke comes in. The reductive exterior is an elegant expression of Range Rover DNA, and the chiseled, taillight graphics give the Evoke a sense of motion even at standstill. Explore the Range Rover Evoke at Land Rover USA dot com. Are you a professional pillow fighter or a 95 low-cost time travel agent, or maybe real estate sales on Mars is your profession? It doesn't matter. Whatever it is you do, however complex or intricate, monday.com can help you organize, work a straight, and make it more efficient. monday.com is the one centralized platform for everything work related. And with monday.com, work is just easier. monday.com. For whatever you run, go to monday.com to learn more. Hello, I'm Audrey Brown, and coming up in this edition of Focus on Africa, why were there delays in paying the Kenyan police deployed to keep the peace in Haiti? And what is the playful political sparring between President Samya Saluhu Hassan and the leader of the opposition, Tundulisu, tell us about the politics in Tanzania today. She named a restless lion after him. People will translate it in whatever way they want, but Tundulisu himself took a very positive approach to it. But I think it just displayed that this kind of political banter was quite difficult to see 5, 6 years ago here in Tanzania. It's Thursday, the 29th of August. First, we go to West Africa. The Prime Minister of Spain is visiting three countries in the region, two of them in West Africa, one in the Sahel. He was in Mauritania earlier this week. Pedro Sanchez is trying to stem the flow of undocumented migrants who use Mauritania as the jumping of point to reach Spanish territory, in this case the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. Mr Sanchez was in the Gambia yesterday, and he is due in Senegal today. The agreement he signed with Mauritania is of particular interest, as it introduced several ideas, one of them being the notion of circular migration, which involves the three countries he's been visiting. The number of people arriving on the Canary Islands has more than doubled since this time last year, and now stands at 23,000. Migration is a key issue in European politics, and Spain is no different. These people in Barcelona, migrants among them, have been venturing their views. It's a hot topic, which is always recurring in the media. And well, I think it's a structural issue, that if we don't get to the root of the problem and try to solve it, they'll keep coming. I'm an immigrant, and I think it's fine. We are looking for a place. If we can stay here, it's better than our place, because if we are living where we are from, it's because we have a reason, because things are not right. Maybe education, health, and a lot of things. Immigration one way or another is going to happen. Those views there, from Spain. Now, Dr. Hassan Uldmoktar is a lecturer in social anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, and author of "After Border Externalization, Migration, Race, and Labor in Mauritania." He explained the finer details of the Spanish Prime Minister's visit. I think the impetus for this visit and agreement is definitely migration there have been unprecedented numbers of people arriving on the Canary Islands over all of this year, and so that has been the headline reason for the visits of Vanessa Sanchez to Mauritania. But in doing so, there are other things that are announced like the opening of the Spanish cultural center in Mauritania, increased investments, opportunities for Spanish businesses in the country, and a so-called circular mobility scheme between Mauritania and Spain. So what is the circular migration idea? What is it involved? It's the first time I've heard of it. It's just an, I guess, an offer to the martianian state and to martianian citizens that a certain number of martianians will be eligible to apply for a, I think, a year long, perhaps a bit shorter, visa in Spain in response to vacancies that are posted by Spanish employers that are then circulated within Mauritania to be applied for by nationals of Mauritania. And I guess this is something of a carrot that's being offered to the martianian state in exchange for cracking down on so-called people smuggling and on migrants in Mauritania and in exchange for what many people in Mauritania have for you to be essentially keeping people that Europe doesn't want in Europe, keeping them in Mauritania. Is it novel? Not at the regional scale. These kinds of schemes have been implemented to varying degrees of success with other states in the region, Senegal in particular, for quite some time. It's the first time, as I say, that something like this has been put in place between Mauritania and Spain. And it could be an indication of martianian authorities saying, look, we want more from you, from Europe and from Spain in particular, in exchange for doing what is perceived as the dirty work of detaining migrants in detention centers in martianian cities and deporting them to Senegal and Mali. I suppose this is one way of addressing migration in what Mr. Sanchez called a humane, safe and orderly way, managing migration by making opportunities for people to get into European countries or Spain in this case, particularly legally, because that's not an option that many people have, right? Do you think it'll work? Whether it'll work, I think, is hard to say because it's interesting that martianians are not the primary nationality that are leaving martianian shores in order to arrive in Spain. It's primarily but not exclusively people from elsewhere in the region, Mali and Senegal and Gambia in particular. So it may have an effect if something similar is announced in the context of Gambia and Senegal. I think Sanchez did hint at something to that effect in Gambia, but I haven't seen as many details of such a scheme being made public as there has in the martianian context. What I'm wondering is, since 2006, we've been looking at this as a problem, right? And you were saying that for nearly 20 years, variations on this approach have been tried, haven't worked. Why are they not working? Yes, a good question. I think it goes back to what you were asking earlier about whether this circular migration scheme will work. While it may, to a certain extent, I think the main reason that they're not achieving their formal objective of preventing so-called irregular migration in Spain is because there's more or less the consensus in the scholarly literature that irregular, illegalized migration is a product of restrictions on legal movement. We live in an age of unprecedented restrictions on legal movement, and the unprecedented numbers of people migrating irregularly is a byproduct of those legal restrictions. I mean, it's kind of common sense if you speak to anybody who gets on of these boats or makes these journeys. The vast majority will have many stories of being turned away at embassies for not satisfying the visa application criteria. That's the primary cause of unprecedented irregular arrivals in Spain. At the same time, I think you need to ask the question after a certain amount of time of the same method being used, whether it isn't fulfilling some sort of other unstated objectives. And what would those be? The political interests of non-EU states thus increasingly see migration as a kind of Achilles heel in Europe that they can leverage to get other favorable aid, trade, or illegal mobility schemes. For example, the dynamic between the far right and the liberal right in many contexts, not least in Spain, where there is often not as much of a difference in substance, but rather in framing of migration. And the stanter can try to adopt the respective and policy prescriptions of the far right in an attempt to kind of preempt their rise. Mr. Sanchez said that not so long ago Spain was also a country of migrants, saying that immigration is not a problem, but a necessity that comes with certain problems. But how do migrants get treated in Spain and how is the debate framed? Is it as bigger political problem in Spain as it is in France, for instance, and in this country? I think it has varied over the years, certainly at the level of the Canary Islands, the population is relatively small, happily reliant on tourism, which parenthetically is also quite a domestically controversial form of inward mobility. But in any case, in that context, sea arrivals do cause quite a bit of controversy when they reach the kinds of levels that they have over this summer, and there were incidents of Vox, the far right party in Spain, playing up the alleged failure of the central government and invoking a kind of crisis of civilisation, of European civilisation, as a result of these arrivals. Part of this visit involves foreign direct investment, in other words, opportunities for Spanish businesses. And so could that be part of it, that there's a new relationship or the glimmerings of a new kind of relationship coming out of this? I'm not sure if it's a new relationship, per se. It seems like a intensification of a pre-existing one, the circular migration scheme, the opening of a Spanish cultural centre in Mauritania. These are new elements of the relationship between Spain and Mauritania, but the broader context of investments for Spanish businesses in Mauritania, particularly in the fishery sector, but also services for the embassy staff and for the network of international aid and intergovernmental organisations in Mauritania. Much of their consumption is serviced by Spanish businesses, so there is this pre-existing context of strong trade relations and associated cultural relations between Spain and Mauritania. What do you think could actually solve the issue? Because more and more when people are coming to Europe, more and more people are risking their lives. These are very perilous journeys, more and more money is being thrown at trying to keep people out, doesn't seem to be working. I mean, that's the million-dollar question, I guess, in terms of the immediate term, and this is not an ideal case scenario, but just addressing the major issue of loss of life at sea, for example, because this year has also been one of the deadliest on the Atlantic roofs of an average of, I think, a thousand people a month have lost their lives. So to address this, I think, requires a intensification and expansion of certain rescue capacities along the coast of West Africa. It'd be interesting to see if this is something that is factored into the public statements and press conferences that come out of Sanchez's visit, but that is an immediate term solution. In the long term, there needs to be a level of legal opportunities to migrate, that is commensurate with the number of people who are trying to get to Europe. Now, we've been looking at Spain and Mauritania, and it seems like Mauritania does stand to benefit something, but I'm wondering, the Gambia and Senegal, what would they want out of this? I would imagine they would want a better deal than they have thus far been offered for discouraging their own citizens from leaving the country. This often comes at quite a heavy, domestic political cost. These policies are deeply unpopular, as are the readmission agreements, by which nationals who are apprehended in Europe can be deported back to West Africa. That's been a circle that various political leaders in the region have been trying to square for quite some time. I'll be very surprised if they do manage to, in this case, if the past 90 years are anything to go by, I have very little reason to believe that the following years won't see similar levels of departures, as we've already seen. That was Dr Hassan Uld Mokta, lecturer in social anthropology, at the School of Oriental and African Studies here in London, an author of After Border Externalization, Migration, Race and Labor in Mauritania. When Kenya offered to send hundreds of police all the way across the world to Haiti in the Western Hemisphere, to try and stabilize a very volatile security situation, many people shook their heads in disbelief. They wondered what difference the Kenyan police, not known for their effectiveness, would make in the brutal fight between the government of Haiti and the gangs that were taking over the capital Port-au-Pans. Kenya's high court had ruled that the deployment was unlawful, but they made it eventually. Now we're hearing that there have been delays in paying the police for their efforts as part of a United Nations approved multinational security support mission. I've been speaking to BBC Africa's security reporter Ian Wafula. So far from statements coming from the multinational support mission, security support mission in Haiti is that there are about 400 troops in the capital Port-au-Prince, and we've seen multiple videos of them circulating online, either interacting with some of the locals or them on patrols. We've also seen them guarding the prime minister during his visits, for instance, to some of the main hospitals in the area. The initial worry when I started covering this was whether the multinational support, especially the cannons, who are the islands there so far, will get the support of the locals on the ground. And it appears from, if we judge by the videos that we're seeing, it appears as though they've gotten that kind of support. And there's been talk that, yes, they've contributed to some stability, but there's still a lot that needs to be done in terms of ensuring Haiti, specifically Port-au-Prince, is safe. Were the Kenyan press and media following closely the progress being made by the Kenyan deployment? Because when it was announced and when the Kenyan police went, there was a lot of controversy around it. People weren't happy about it. They didn't feel that the Kenyan police would offer anything of value in Haiti. Yeah, that's true. From the time this decision was announced, that Kenya was defending its troops. The question was, does Kenya even have the capacity to spare a thousand of its officers? Because that is the total number that Kenya had actually pledged initially. And that is the question that the government has been asked to answer. But then another thing that has also come up is human rights groups have largely been concerned about the professionalism and the history of the Kenyan police. And I could just take you back to over the last two months in the money in which the Kenyan police have been criticized in how they handled the anti-finance protests, accusations of abductions and indiscriminately shooting protesters and using live bullets and automobiles deaths being attributed to them. These are some of the concerns that were being raised, especially by lobby groups back in Haiti, as well as civil groups here in Kenya, as to whether they are the right people to actually lead this mission. And some of those concerns are still linger or no dream. So were the Kenyan media reporting regularly on how the Kenyans are doing? Because you spoke about video circulating. I take it that that was happening on social media rather than actually being reported by the media. Yes, there has been coverage, especially from when President William Ruto kind of officiated the fast bars that was leaving about two months ago. There was that coverage. However, we are seeing that more local media are kind of reporting based on what we're seeing on social media and also the communication we're getting from the Kenyan national police, as well as the multinational security support mission. I must say that it's been incredibly difficult to get further details about the mission from government. They're keeping their cuts very gutted about that mission. Obviously, I would imagine it's because of the kind of tough questions that they have to tackle. And again, some might also argue it's about the sensitivity of the nature of the deployment. But still, getting information on this mission has been rather difficult even on my end. I've really, really struggled to get through and have some questions answered. Now we're hearing about pay delays. What's happening? Yes, that's right. One of the main motivations for some of these officers, and I spoke to a couple who had either volunteered or were in the process of being trained to go to Haiti. One of the main motivations was they had been told they're going to get extra supplementary pay on top of their Kenyan salary. And then for some of them also, they were keen on taking an international deployment. This was a fast for them. But let's talk about the pay. What we're learning according to reports is that majority of them, or they have not been receiving salaries. And then we did have a statement coming out from the mission earlier this week saying that they understand that there's been a delay in payments. And the reason behind this is because systems had not been set up for easy flow of cash into the accounts. That is what was hindering the payments. However, the statement did say that they will ensure that money will be transferred by the end of this week and that then the longer be our delay. We're also seeing that it's around the time when many of these officers are expected to be supporting their family or children to go back to school. So you can imagine the immense pressure that comes from that. So these pay delays, is it the Kenyan police pay or is it the deployment pay that is being delayed? And who's meant to be paying them anyway? Where do the delays come from? Who's responsible for it? What we understand is that the Kenyan police are actually receiving their home pay. Basically, their salary that they were receiving while they were here in the country. The supplementary pay was to be managed or used to be managed by the mission. And that is where the delay is coming from. We do know largely that a number of Western countries, for instance, America, who are the largest funders of this mission, France and Canada, as well have contributed some money into this mission. And that is where those funds are coming from. So it appears as though it's an issue of management and displacement of the salaries to the officers or three. I'm wondering what people in Kenya are saying about it. Are they suspecting foul play? Yes, there's foul play. But also, there's a question on people are not surprised because they said that how this mission has been announced, it appears as though it's not organized at all. Because you do remember a couple of times all the way, other than having court cases, there are a number of times when there are announcements that the troops would leave. But only for us to discover, even myself, I found out that the European Command Center was not really prepared to have the Kenyan troops at the time. So it did seem as though from the onset, there are a bit of delays in terms of preparations for having the troops over. And now we're kind of seeing the ripple effect of that right now. That's BBC Africa's security reporter, Ian Wafula. This is focused on Africa from the BBC World Service. Explaining football to the friend who's just there for the nachos? Hard. Tailgating from home like a pro with snacks and drinks everyone will love? Any easy win. And with Instacart helping deliver the snack time MVPs to your door, you're ready for the game in as fast as 30 minutes. So you never miss a play or lose your seat on the couch or have to go head to head for the last chicken wing. Shop Game Day faves on Instacart and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three gross reorders. Offer valid for a limited time, other fees in terms apply. Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. Recently, I asked Mint Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation. They said yes. And then when I asked if raising prices technically violates those onerous to your contracts, they said, "What the f*ck are you talking about? You insane Hollywood s*ck." So to recap, we're cutting the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try at Mint Mobile.com/Switch. $45 up for three months plus taxes and fees promoting for new customers for limited time. Unlimited more than $40 gigabytes per month. So, go to Mint Mobile.com. Politics in Tanzania used to be quite tough, even dangerous for some when John Magufuly was in charge. Known as the bulldozer, he didn't broke much opposition or dissent as he summarily fired civil servants for not doing their jobs, shut down newspapers for publishing stories he didn't like, and so on. His "shall we say hands-on" approach was not appreciated by all. Tundu Lisu, leader of the opposition Chadema party, bore the brunt of this approach. Mr. Lisu was seriously injured when his car was sprayed with bullets in 2017. He went into exile for a time, and the perpetrators of the attack were never apprehended. Mr. Magufuly died in 2021. Enter Samya Sulu-Hassan, and the political climate appear to lighten, so much so that she took a playful jab at Tindu Lisu, who'd be squaring up against her in presidential elections due next year. This is the moment when President Samya Sulu-Hassan, on a visit to a festival in Zandiba, saw a restless lion pacing in a cage and named it Tundu Lisu, saying it was troublesome, as was her political opponent. Everyone held their breath. How did the opposition leader take that? And what does this tell us about the state of politics in Tanzania today? Our former colleague from the Swahili service, Salim Kikeke, has been telling me how it all started. So what happened is there's an annual festival that happens in Zandiba every year, and it was just heading towards the end. There are stalls, and during the festival, normally they have exhibitions, and so one of the wildlife authorities decided to bring over wild animals, and among those wild animals, there was this lion who's caged, and he was pacing up around the cage, and when the president of now approached the cage, the officer, who was explaining what was happening there, you know, the president asked her, "What's wrong with him?" This officer said, "No, no, no, no. He normally does that after a good lunch." And then the president said, "Does he have an aim?" The wildlife officer said, "No, he doesn't." Then the president decided to call him Tundu Lisu, who is opposition leader, he's the vice chairman of the official opposition party. She said, "And that's how he came about, and everybody laughed when she said that." So why did she call it Tindu Lisu? Was there any particular quality that the lion was displaying? I think it's the character, because when she was visiting the exhibition and came across the lion, she said, "Because of his character, this lion, according to her, looked unsettled." And then on the following day, the president was doing her speech while closing this week-long festival. She again brought it up and said, "Yeah, I've seen these clips going around, doing rounds on social media when I named this lion Tundu Lisu." So she underlined and said, "Yeah, I decided to give this name to the lion." And what did Tundu Lisu, the human, one of the leaders of the opposition, who has had a sticky relationship with the government, I mean, he survived an assassination attempt in 2017. He was injured, he's had a very sticky relationship with the late John Magoffoli, who preceded the current president. So what did he say? Did he take it in the spirits that he was given or did he take offense to it or what? No, no, it took no offense. In fact, he said it does relate to him, really, because he said his great-grandfather was a hero. And he said that because there was an incident that a lion had attacked the cattle of great-grandfather and the great-grandfather literally killed the lion and he was held as a hero. So he said, "Yeah, the lion blood runs through the family, so he was happy about it, really." I think what happened after the sticky relationship you mentioned there between Tundu Lisu and the government in the past, the new president has come in and offered a hand of reconciliation with the political parties here. Tanzania got to the polls next year, and we do expect that Tundu Lisu is going to face the president, Samir Soluhasan. But President Samir once peaceful politics, when Samir came in, she allowed all those political activities to continue as usual. And so she seems to be taking such a positive stance and all the political parties are very pleased via this move. Because Tanzanian politics wasn't known for acrimony before, I think, John Magufuli, he seemed to have a very particular kind of approach to politics. I believe that Tanzanian's called him the bulldozer. Of course, there's always tensions in politics, right? But this is a new note, or is it? It's very playful, it's very upfront, because sometimes people think of politics as only serious and only acrimonious. Does this make it lighter and less serious? Absolutely does. And when you look at the events building up to the naming of the lion just a couple of weeks ago, the opposition party were trying to bring their youth together in the southern city of Baer. Some of the leaders of the party were arrested, they were later on released on bail. And suddenly people started talking about this, the past, and were asking questions as what was actually happening. And so when they were released, I spoke to Tundu Lisu himself after that, and he said he was really surprised that actually happened. Sameer Saluhu Hassan may not know what she actually did to compare me with a lion, but she should have asked my Naya Turu tribe Elders from where I was born. They would have told her that I come from a clan of heroes of Naya Turu, known as Ahomi. Ahomi is a hero who has killed a lion, because lions are enemies of cattle herders. So someone who fights and kills a lion is hailed as a hero. So I come from a clan of heroes, my great-grandfather killed a lion who had raided his cattle. My father, he killed two lions who attacked his cattle. So for us, if you call me a lion, basically you're telling people that I'm a brave person. But you could see the approach from President Saluhu Hassan. She doesn't really want to have these political tensions that the country has experienced in the past. And so her thinking of naming the lion after Tundu Lisu is just trying to send a message and saying, "We're going to try and do our best to practice normal democracy and put all the tensions aside." I am wondering whether the site of a caged lion pacing up and down, quite powerless, toothless almost after lunch, is perhaps her way of saying, "Well, we've got you when we want you." I think it's difficult to translate that. I don't know, normally wildlife officials say the new Tundu Lisu is normally calm in his cage. Probably the President just walked in, you might say, the wrong moment. But people will translate it in whatever way they want. But Tundu Lisu himself took a very positive approach to it. But I think it just displayed that this kind of political banter was quite difficult to see five, six years ago here in Tanzania. And that's Salim Kikeke in Dar es Salaam. Focus on Africa was compiled by Joseph Keene, Patricia Whitehone and Bella Hassan. Connie Sharp was the senior journalist in charge. Jonathan Greer was our technical producer. Andre Lombard and Alice Moudengi, our editors. I'm Audrey Brown, and we'll talk again next time. Hey, I hear you think podcasts are all about true crime, huh? Well wise guy, the iHeartRadio app's got all kinds of podcasts. We got stuff you should know and stuff they don't want you to know. We got Bobby Bones, Big Boy and Lou Lader. We got SpongeBob, Binge Pants, and Exotic Erotic Storytime. We got doe boys, two dudes in the kitchen, Green Eggs and Dan. Hey, we got Elf Quest. We got podcasts for everything on the iHeartRadio app for free. If you don't download that, well, that's not just a true crime my friend. That's criminal. [BLANK_AUDIO]