Daniel J. Pipes

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Historical irony

Reader comment on item: [West Africa:] New Route to the West

Submitted by Vijay (United Kingdom), Jun 7, 2006 at 10:45

We read about the dreadful slave boats which transported upto 2 million Africans as slaves from the western coast of Africa to the New World and Europe. An equal or more number of African slaves were transported through Sahara to Arab and muslim countries as slaves. The conditions were so horrendous that a good proportion of them perished on route.

Ironically, in the Age of Human Rights, many millions of Africans are on the move, this time voluntarily, through deserts and sea to foreign shores were they hope to find a better life.

Now there are about 200 million migrants in the world.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5054214.stm

The voluntary migration of millions from Africa under dreadful conditions with a real risk of death along the way or worse dwarfs anything that happened in the 16 to 18th centuries.


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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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