Europe is building a wall, and it wants Africa to pay for the bricks. The recent visit by UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper to Ethiopia, checkbook in hand, is the latest chapter in a disturbing trend of "assertive migration diplomacy" that seeks to turn African nations into Europe’s border guards, often at the expense of their own sovereignty and stability.

While European leaders publicly distance themselves from the abrasive rhetoric of Donald Trump, their policies are increasingly indistinguishable. By outsourcing border control to countries like Ethiopia, Sudan, and Tunisia, the EU and UK are effectively exporting their political crises to the African continent. The "partnerships" offered—loaded with development aid and security cooperation—are thinly veiled bribes designed to halt the flow of people, ignoring the complex economic and conflict-driven realities that force them to move.

The Cost of Containment

This externalization of borders is dangerous. It empowers security apparatuses in fragile states, often legitimizing authoritarian regimes in the name of "migration management." The $400 million agreement signed in Addis Ababa may create some jobs, but its primary metric for success is not development—it is the number of bodies stopped at the border. This approach undermines the African Union’s own vision of free movement and continental integration, fracturing African unity by turning transit states against their neighbors.

"We are trading our dignity for visas we will never get," warns a policy analyst. The focus on security over rights ignores the fact that migration is a survival strategy, not a crime. By accepting Europe’s terms, African nations risk becoming holding pens for the Global North’s unwanted, trapping millions in a limbo of hopelessness.

• The Hypocrisy: Europe demands open markets for its goods but closed borders for African people, a double standard that perpetuates economic inequality.
• The Alternative: Africa must resist these coercive deals and push for legal migration pathways and genuine economic partnerships that address the root causes of displacement.

Reclaiming the Narrative

The time has come for African leaders to say no to the role of Europe’s gatekeeper. Migration is a human phenomenon, not a security threat. Until Europe is willing to discuss mobility with the same enthusiasm as it discusses containment, these diplomatic missions will remain what they are: colonial control in a modern guise.

Africa is not a buffer zone; it is a continent, and its people are not pawns on a European chessboard.