Sengalese President Abdoulaye Wade Suggests Repatriating Haitians to Africa

Senegal's president Abdoulaye Wade has made a controversial suggestion about Haiti. He has called for Africa to make room for victim's of the island nation's massive earthquake to restart their lives on the "continent from where their ancestors were snatched as slaves."

"The repeated calamities that befall Haiti prompt me to propose a radical solution -- to take measures to create somewhere in Africa... the conditions for Haitians to return," President Abdoulaye Wade told France Info radio. "They did not choose to go to that island," he added, referring to the mass deportation of African slaves to Haiti, then a French colony, from the 16th century.

"It is our duty to recognize their right to come back to the land of their ancestors."His spokesman Mamadou Bamba Ndiaye gave further details of the proposals."If it is just a few people, we will offer them a roof and a patch of land," he told the radio station. "If they come in large numbers, we will give them a whole region."

"It wouldn't be the first time that former slaves or their descendants were brought back to Africa," said Wade, citing similar measures taken in Liberia. "Now the problem is to know how, and who will bear the cost." Source: AFP

Well, I know he means well, but I seriously doubt repatriating to Africa is the solution for what ails the Haitian people at this juncture. Personally, I think, though his intentions are basically good, this is a recipe for disaster, but what do you think?