AFRICA/IVORY COAST - Labor Day: "Create jobs for young people to avoid the phenomenon of illegal immigration"

Monday, 3 May 2021 work migrants local churches

COTE D'IVOIRE

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Abidjan (Agenzia Fides) - "Today we must think about creating family businesses, private companies, this will give jobs to young people who will not think about crossing the Mediterranean", says Fr. Emmanuel Wohi Nin, Secretary General of the Ivorian Bishops' Conference, suggesting to the Ivorian authorities a possible solution to partially solve the phenomenon of illegal immigration. "Because - he says - if young Ivorians indulge in such practices, it is only because they are fleeing unemployment in their country". On several occasions, the Ivorian bishops have called the authorities' attention to the need for a better distribution of the country's wealth and to put in place mechanisms that can solve the problem of national unemployment. Fr Wohi Nin, on the occasion of the feast of May 1, urges Christian workers to give their best in the work they do. "When the Lord has allowed us to have stable jobs, it is so that we can give the best of ourselves. This pleases ourselves, then God". The Secretary General of the Bishops' Conference of the Ivory Coast finally took the opportunity to launch an appeal to all those who have the possibility to offer jobs, so that the hope of the population and young Ivorians is not directed exclusively to the State, but also to the business world. According to the latest data from the Afrobarometer in 2020 more than half (52%) of the citizens of Côte d'Ivoire consider themselves unemployed, a percentage that was around 47% in 2014. The Afrobarometer also indicates "that the working class, which should be the pillar of the economy (employed on farms, fishermen, foresters and small farmers) is among the poorest strata and paradoxically has fallen further behind on the social scale than citizens who have never had a job". The Covid-19 pandemic has aggravated the situation with the closure of companies and the impact of the teaching class by restrictions in schools, especially private ones. (S.S.) (L.M) (Agenzia Fides, 3/5/2021)