Official: Algeria deported 37,000 Nigeriens since 2014

Algerian authorities have deported 37,000 Nigeriens who had illegally entered Algeria including women and children, over the past four years, APS reported a government official as saying.

The director of immigration at the Algerian interior ministry, Hassan Qasimi said “as many as 37,000 Nigerien have been deported between December, 2014 and November, 2018 after reaching an agreement with the government of Niger”.

According to Qasimi, the deportees included 1095 women and children who were caught begging in Algeria on behalf of Nigerien criminal networks that used the money for illegal purposes such as buying weapons.

The same source confirmed that “these criminal networks that were active in Niger, are exploiting children and women to collect money by begging in Algeria” noting that such criminal activities began between 2013 and 2014.

According to Qasimi, the Algerian authorities are currently working to eliminate these criminal networks and have removed a number of them in the capital, the city of Oran in western Algeria and the provinces of Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia east of Algeria.

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