Algeria sent 20,000 migrants back to Niger this year

Algeria has returned nearly 20,000 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to neighbouring Niger since the start of the year, often under “brutal conditions”, the Niamey-based Alarmphone Sahara told AFP on Monday. The North African country has deported many irregular migrants since 2014, including women and children, as it is a major transit point for those seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Alarmphone Sahara is an organisation that rescues migrants in the vast desert between Algeria and Niger. It recorded the return of 19,798 people between the beginning of the year and August, according to communications officer Moctar Dan Yaye.

The NGO reported in late August that migrants are often deported under “brutal conditions, in the worst cases with fatal consequences, and are sometimes abandoned in the desert regions of border areas.”

Yaye noted that migrants are arrested during raids on their places of residence or work in cities or on the Tunisian border and are gathered in Tamanrasset in southern Algeria before being transported in trucks towards Niger. The Nigeriens are then taken by road to Assamaka, the first Nigerien village on the other side of the border, where they are dealt with by the local authorities.

As for migrants with other nationalities, they are abandoned at “point zero,” a desert area marking the border between Algeria and Niger. From there, they are forced to walk 15 kilometres to Assamaka in extremely hot temperatures, according to Yaye.

He added that once migrants are registered with the Nigerien police in Assamaka, they are given temporary shelters sponsored by the UN and Italy, before being transferred to other centres in northern Niger.

Yaye said that they have heard many stories from migrants of abuse, violence and the confiscation of their belongings by Algerian forces.

Niger’s military junta, which took power last year, summoned the Algerian ambassador to Niamey in April to protest against the violent nature of the returns and deportations. In turn, Algeria summoned Niger’s ambassador and described the accusations as “baseless”.

Since Niger repealed a 2015 law criminalising migrant trafficking in November, “many people have moved freely” on migration routes “without the fear” they previously felt, said the NGO.

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