IT has now been established that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Residence and Establishment does not prevent governments of member states from expelling immigrants from other West African countries whose actions are considered a threat to national security.
This follows complaints by some government officials in Ghana and other member countries that the government is unable to expel immigrant pastoralists whose actions pose a threat to peace and security due to the provisions of the ECOWAS protocol.
However, discussions at the two-day Consultative Meeting on Agriculture and Pastoralist Conflicts in West Africa revealed that under the protocol, member states reserve the right to expel these immigrants in accordance with due process.
As noted at the meeting, the ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Residence and Establishment, promulgated in Dakar, Senegal, on 29th of May, 1979, stipulates that each citizen of the Community has the right to enter, reside and establish in the territory of member states.
Nonetheless, the Supplementary Protocol on the Right of Residence stipulates that: “Migrant workers and members of their families whose status comply with the residence requirements may only be expelled from the host member state for reasons of national security, public order or morality.”
It further notes that any decision to expel a citizen under the Protocol must be well-founded legally or administratively in accordance with the laws of the member state and in alignment with the provisions of the protocol.
The consultative meeting, which ended yesterday in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, was organised by the West African Network for Peace-building (WANEP) with funding from the government of Finland.
Apart from Ghana and Burkina Faso, there were participants from Nigeria, Togo, Cote de’Ivoire, Mali, Niger and Benin.
A communiqué issued at the end of the meeting however called on member states not to yield to pressure from their people to expel pastoralists, mostly Fulani, from their countries.
Instead, the participants recommended that the governments give due recognition to pastoralism as a form of agriculture and consider ways of harmonising its operations in line with other forms of agriculture and in a manner as to avoid environmental hazards.
They suggested the establishment of entry points and grazing reserves or routes for transhumance to enable them undertake their activities without posing any dangers.
The participants stressed the need for governments in West Africa to institute alternative dispute resolution processes to resolve the emerging conflicts between nomadic pastoralists and their host communities, especially the farmers.
They noted that such processes, such as dialogue, must involve the key actors, including the pastoralists, sedentary farmers, chiefs and community folk at the grassroots, because these people had the solutions to their problems.
The communiqué again stressed the need for member states of ECOWAS to sensitise their people with respect to the need to discard ethnic sentiments against the Fulani.
This, they indicated, was very crucial because part of the problem why host communities were having conflicts with the Fulani was due to the cultural biases and prejudices borne against the Fulani people.
“The Fulani are killers. They are destructive and what not. When you have this in mind, then you cannot stay with the Fulani,” stated Dr Ly Boubacar from the School of Wisdom in Dori, Burkina Faso.
“Yes, they are dangerous. When you provoke them by killing their animals, they would attack you. But why would you want to provoke them instead of dialoguing with them. Every human being would react when he feels threatened,” he further noted.
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