Author:

Keywords:

migration policy, Senegal, West Africa, corruption

Abstract:

The statistics are striking. The number of clandestine migrants arriving in the Canary Islands by pirogues from the West African coast has decreased with 60% in just one year: from 33,000 in 2006 to 12,000 in 2007. And the downward trend continues in 2008, barely 3,200 arrivals during the first six months of this year. Many attribute this “success in the protection of the fortress Europe” to the increase in the working means of Frontex, the institutional watchdog of Europe’s borders, and its close collaboration with the West African, and more in particular, the Senegalese authorities.