Europe will never discourage African migration while it funds the corruption that drives it | Evelyn Groenink

The idea that Africans aren't aware of the dangers of migration, or haven't tried to build up their own countries' ignores the terrible despair they feel at the state of their governments

On the surface it seems darkly consistent for Europe and the UK to respond to calls for slavery apologies with intensifying efforts to create a Fortress Europe and small-boat-free" seas. The UK's Rwanda plans, the EU's barbed wire fences and Frontex coastal patrols around Africa's north and west, all send the message that Africans belong in Africa. Slavery was wrong, right? So, these slave ships should never have brought them to live with us in the first place and they want us to apologise for that.

African strongmen, therefore, are now paid by the UK (Rwanda) and Europe (Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal) to keep Africans in Africa, in camps and jails if need be. This was the message, too, for Senegal when aid was tied to Frontex patrolling its shores; it was the message that came with funds and equipment for Libya for migrants to be sent towards torture-riddled detention camps. You may be an oppressor, but let's pay you.