Cross-Border Migration and Security Challenges in West Africa: Implication on Sustainable Development

In Chapter 8, Stanley Osezua Ehiane examines how cross-border migration is now a major source of concern due to the implications for security and development. In West Africa, the ECOWAS Protocol on free movement and establishment has recently facilitated movement across national borders. However, the protocol was aimed at creating a borderless subregion. However, the article reveals that continuous implementation of the protocol has contributed immensely to the porosity of borders in West Africa, which warrants undocumented migration of ECOWAS citizens, thereby making the border a gateway for arms and trans-border banditry resulting in trans-border security challenges bedeviling the subregion. Today, West Africa has become synonymous with insecurity and armed conflict, as well as transnational criminal networks.