Photo By Ahmed Igeh/Haatuf
Hargeysa,April 29,2016(SL-Times)-The death of over 150 young Somalilanders earlier this month in the Mediterranean sea after the boat in which they were travelling capsized has brought fourth an outpouring of grieve across this nation of 4 millions but the loss has also unleashed a flood of criticism and condemnation directed at president Ahmed Silanyo’s government for failing to tackle the conditions that force thousands of the country’s youth every year to leave their homes to seek better prospects in western Europe at the expense of risking their lives whilst making the dangerous crossing of the high seas to that continent.The boat which was crammed with over 500 regugees and migrants mostly from the Horn of Africa region had apparently departed from some where at the north African coast in between Libya and Egypt on around April 23,2016.The tragedy happened as the vessel was heading for Italy.However in Somaliland itself the news of the incident started to trickle only about 5 days later when Facebook postings by some of the victims’ relatives and friends were shared.
As the local media scrambled to fill the news coverage gap ,Somaliland became overwhelmed by shock and grieve.On April 18, president Silanyo made a puplic statement in which he expressed his condolences to the families of the young Somalilanders who lost their lives in the sinking while calling for a national conference on the issue of youth emigration and human trafficking.A few days later vice-president Abdirahaman Saylici announced boastfully that the government was forming a new police unit to combat human trafficking activities in the country.But neither the president’s expression of sympathy to the bereaved over the tragic loss nor Mr Saylici’s promise to crack down on human traffickers who smuggle young Somalilanders across borders all the way to Europe has been sufficient enough to silence the public outcry trigerred by the so many young lives claimed by the cruel sea.
In local media interviews ,families of the victims were harshly critical of Mr Silanyo for doing nothing to address the the massive unemployment among the youth which most people see as the main reason why many young adults have for years in a row been pushed to leave their homeland in pursuit of better opprtunities elsewhere.Among the many people supporting this view is Amina Wais who has not yet fully recovered from grieve after losing a son in a similar drowning incident off the Linyan coast in 2015.”My child would have remained here in Hargeysa had he been able to find a job but since he couldn’t he had to leave despite my cries for him to stay” she said.
The majority of those who perished in this month’s sinking were graduates of universities and colleges.Many of the neighbourhood and school friends they left behind have cited the government’s epedemic corruption and nepotism practices as another critical contributing factor for the desperation driving many unemployed young women and men to life threathening emigration to Europe . “There is no doubt that they decide to leave out of despair and anger specially when they see government jobs and contracts given to the relatives of those in power and the meagre public resources are blundered instead of being used for funding youth employment programs if not for the common good” said Khader Hussein whose school mate was among the Somalilanders who drowned in the southern Mideterranean sea earlier this month.In fact among youth circles ,it is not difficult to notice the special resentment felt toward the First Lady Amina Waris and her son-in-law Bashe Awil for their preference for appionting friends from the UK Somaliland diasporra in both senior and junior govrnment jobs despite lacking minimum qualifications.Mohamed Omer ,28,who doesn’t conceal the fact that he will soon leave in the hope of making it to Europe explained the demoralizing effects of government corruption on the unemployed university graduates seeking jobs”one graduates and starts looking for a particular job in the civil service only to see it given to some one without merit who probably spent most of his adult life on social benefits abroad, then you try to get funding for this wonderful business idea only to eventually give it up because there are no commercial banks in the country to lend you the start up money… so on and on… until you end up with no other option except to either join Al-Shabaab or take the risk of crossing the Medterranean in an unseaworthy boat and I ‘ve chosen to try the latter”.
Despite Somaliland’s substantial livestock,fisheries and minerals resorces,yet the potentiality of its local economy to grow fast enough so as to produce an acceptable level of growth in jobs has been constrained by the country’s lack of own commercial banking services and international deplomatic recognition as well.The introduction of commercial banking in the country has been opposed successfully by an unholy alliance between some government officials,Wahabist clerks and business tycoons.In fact as Mohamed Omer pointed out many viable business ideas keep not seeing the light of the day due to lack of financing.Also Somaliland has been unable to take on labour intensive projects for the development of its economic infrastructure and services such as roads and ports since its both public and private sectors are desciminated against borrowing from international financial institutions due to the stigmized status of belonging to a diplomatically unrecognized country.
So far the incompetent Silanyo government has not come up with any long term concrete proposals for addressing the youth exodus from the country.On the contrary ,most goverment officials and supporters of Silanyo’s Kulmiye party who spoke about the issue tended to put the blame on the drowned victims for risking their lives and their parents for financing their travel.The divided opposition tried to capitalize on the public dismay but had nothing to offer( in terms of dealing with the challenges posed by the risky emigration of young Somalilanders ) except Absentia funeral prayer known as Salaatul Gha’ib whis is performed when a Muslim dies in a location where there are no Muslims to pray for him or her.While some of the country’s Islamic clerks declared that risking one’s life was a sin tantamount to suicid which according to Islamic theology is punishable in hell,Al-Shabaab jihadists spokesman Ali Mahmoud Raghe said that his movement was saddened by the death of hundreds of young Somalis at sea.
The one thing that remains clear though is that Somaliland will not be able to tackle the youth emigration crisis unless the socio-economic,governance and diplomatic factors causing this phenomena are addressed both locally and internationally.
The post Unemployment And Goverment Corruption Blamed For Driving Youth Into Their Death After A Boat Carrying Over 500 Migrants Mainly From Somaliland Capsizes In The Mediterranean appeared first on Somaliland Times.