Algeria sends sores of Syria refugees to Niger desert

Syrian refugees are seen at the refugee camp in Idlib, Syria [Muhammed Said – Anadolu Agency]

Algerian authorities sent more than 60, mainly Syrian, asylum seekers to the Niger Desert and left them without food and water, Safa news agency reported yesterday.

One of the refugees said that they were stuck there and could not return to Syria or move to any other country due to a lack of money. He also said that he appealed for help from the Syrian embassy in Algiers, but it did not respond.

“We are currently on the border with Niger,” Masoud Qader, one of the Syrian refugees, said. “There are Palestinians and Yemenis among us.”

There are 62 Syrians, including 50 from Ein Al-Arab (Kobani), he explained. Women and children are among them.

Qader said the Algerian government moved them to the desert after detaining them in the city of Mostaganem.

They have been calling for the Algerian authorities to give them refugee status, but it refused.

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