More economic and strategic cooperation between Europe and Africa: that is at the top of the agenda of the summit in Brussels with government leaders from the EU and Africa. Migration, the subject that still dominated the previous EU-Africa Summit in 2017, has receded into the background.
Five years ago, emotions ran high: many African countries were unhappy about the EU’s plans to forcibly return migrants to their countries of origin. There is a very divided opinion about migration within Europe, but there is consensus about the policy to stop migrants at the border of the union. Nobody wants a repeat of summer 2015, when huge numbers of migrants moved through Europe.
To prevent this, agreements were made at the time with countries such as Turkey, Morocco and Libya to stop and receive the migrants there, in exchange for financial compensation. But it is now clear that the living conditions of the migrants who are in refugee camps in Libya are appalling.
Commissioned by the NOS, cameramen in Libya captured how two migrants, Mahmoud and Suleiman, lead a difficult life in Libya and hope for a better life in Europe:
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