Arab League seeks solutions as 70 per cent of Arab youth want to emigrate

Around three quarters of Arab youth want to migrate to countries out of their region due to rising unemployment in Arab states, an Arab League official said Manama: Around three quarters of Arab youth want to migrate to countries out of their region due to rising unemployment in Arab states, an Arab League official said.
"Due to their poor participation in society and politics and to rising joblessness, 70 per cent of the Arab youth want to migrate out of the region," Khalid Al Wahishi, director of Population Policy and Immigration at Arab League, said.
Empower the youth
"We at Arab League have been warning member states at all our meetings to empower the youth. Unemployment, alarmingly high at 26 per cent, poor participation of youth and illiteracy are major hindrances to population policy development and implementation," Al Wahishi told delegates at a gathering of population experts from member-countries in Qatar.
The ratio of youth in the population of Arab countries is very high and requires efforts to empower them and raise their participation in politics, he said.
"The changes taking place in some Arab countries clearly show that it is the youth of these states who have played a leading role in the reforms movement," he said, quoted by Qatari daily The Peninsula on Tuesday.
Unemployment
According to the official, the Arab League has been arguing for several years that there was an urgent need to tackle the problems of unemployment in member-states and to empower the youth and raise their participation in society and politics.
The 13th meeting of the heads of national councils and committees of the population in Arab countries in Doha, opened on Monday, is bringing together delegates from Arab League and global agencies concerned with population to review the outcome of political and social developments, population and youth issues in Arab states.
The delegates will also discuss the demographic situation in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and review the activities of national population councils and committees in 2010.