Ms. Amanda Bisong is the policy officer at the European Centre for Development Policy Management ( ECDPM ), Netherlands, and a PhD scholar on the topic of Regional Migration Governance (with focus on West Africa) at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Nigeria Nsukka. Ms. Bisong spoke of the COVID-19 response strategies in West Africa and its impact on migrant workers during the virtual panel discussion organized by the Global Research Forum on Diaspora Transnationalism [GRFDT] on the topic, ‘Migration Management During COVID-19: Best Practices from Latin America, Africa and Asia’, conducted on 28 July 2020.
Policy Responses to COVID-19
Ms. Bisong, began her address by stating that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) made a decision to shut their borders in April, marking the beginning of a complete restriction on movement within the region. However, the restrictions did not apply to trade routes as goods continued to move freely within the region. “While there were complete restrictions, truck drivers were allowed to move with essential goods in and around the region”, stated Ms. Bisong. ECOWAS relaxed restrictions to movement through trade and transport corridors in the region to ensure that countries in the region had access to food supplies and essential goods.
Lessons Learnt from the Ebola Epidemic
The ECOWAS region had previously battled the Ebola epidemic in 2014-2015. As a result, there was already a coordinated health response mechanism in place led by West Africa Health Organization (WAHO) and West Africa’s Centre for Disease Control.
“Due to the lessons learnt from the outbreak of Ebola in the region, the authorities were able to come up with the standard operating procedure and guidelines to ensure movement still remained within the region in the event of any epidemic”: Ms. Amanda Bisong
These regulations, adopted in December 2019, were quite useful in allowing the region to adapt to shutdown of movement and trade as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Flow of essential goods continued through identified logistics and trade corridors, and this also “created opportunities for business involved in e-commerce and electronic financial services”, Ms. Bisong pointed out.
Regional Responses to Pandemic
WAHO and CDC, in coordination with each other, were able to transport essential services from one part of the region to another. Due to the Ebola epidemic, some countries such as Sierra Leone and Liberia faced a shortage of health workers. But this challenge was addressed as these organizations were able to engage in capacity building and move essential health workers from other countries to those facing a shortage. The regional responses conducted by WAHO and West African CDC also enabled increased testing for COVID-19. In their Standard Operating Procedure and Guidelines, there is a provision “to identify processes and procedures that immigration and customs officials can use at the borders and entry points in the region to ensure that health and safety procedures are undertaken and economic activities are not stalled as a result of the restrictions.” Thus, they successfully combined health and economic approaches in dealing with the pandemic.
Ms. Bisong concluded her presentation by asserting that “most of the responses in the region have not made reference to migrants in these countries.” This is ironic considering the bulk of migration that happens within the region. Similarly, refugees were also left out of COVID-19 response strategies. This is a huge gap that has not been addressed by ECOWAS officials, as this left most refugees and migrant workers to fend for themselves since they are not eligible for welfare packages provided by the state.
Inomusa Ndlovu
A Zimbabwean, creative writer, feminist and a student of M.A in Political Science at the University of Lucknow, India. She can be reached on twitter @InomusaCN.