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LeMonde.fr: Algeria accelerates evictions of sub-Saharan migrants in the desert

Posted by: Berhane Habtemariam

Date: Tuesday, 20 March 2018

In a few weeks, hundreds of people were arrested for being taken to the borders with Niger and Mali.

African migrants under the bridge of a highway in the suburbs of Algiers, in June 2017.

Since the beginning of the year, Algiers has expelled several hundred sub-Saharan migrants to its southern borders, confirming the tightening of its migration policy . Between February 3 and 13, more than 500 people were deported to the Niger border . Arrested in various Algerian cities , they were taken to Tamanrasset, 1,800 km south of Algiers, where they were held in a prefabricated camp for several days before being taken in trucks to the border.

The Algeria and Niger have agreed in 2014 to Algiers organized the arrest and deportation of Nigerian migrants who beg in different cities. According to the Algerian authorities, these men, women and children are used by a well-organized network close to the trafficking and terrorism networks.

However, since December 2016, the arrests also concern migrants from different countries of West and Central Africa , more and more numerous in groups of expellees. So much so that on February 21, while visiting Agadez, the Nigerien Minister of the Interior denounced the expulsions on his territory of nationals of other countries than his own.

"We had long discussions with the Algerian authorities, during which we asked them not to send any more migrants from Mali , Guinea and other countries," Mohamed Bazoum told reporters. That day, in the center of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) of this city in northern Niger, there were 770 non-Nigerians expelled from Algeria.

Attacked by groups armed ed

Another element shows that Algiers has accelerated its expulsion policy . The 1 st  of March, the security forces arrested dozens of men in the town of Ghardaia, 600 km south of Algiers. According to the testimonies, most were workers. These men were taken to the Malian border, near the Algerian town of Bordj Badji Mokhtar. They claim to have walked nearly six hours in the desert.

On March 6th and 7th, 125 men finally arrived in the city of Gao, in northeastern Mali. Most were of Malian nationality, the others came from different West African countries. According to a statement by Human Rights Watch (HRW), they were attacked several times by armed groups on the road . Some of them are among the few dozen demonstrators who, on March 12, protested violently in front of the Algerian embassy in Bamako.

At the same time, expulsions continued to the Nigerian border. On March 4, Matias Meier, program director of the International Rescue Committee in Niger, announced the arrival in Agadez of 1,000 migrant women expelled from Algeria. And on March 15, IOM's mission leader in Niger said that 369 migrants, "mainly Malians and Guineans," were rescued at the border. They are "angry" , "scared" and, for some, "traumatized" .

First arrests in Oran

On the Algerian side, the arrests do not falter. Between March 7 and 11, dozens of migrants were arrested on various construction sites in the capital. Some worked on buildings in the upscale neighborhood of Sidi Yahia and social housing built by a Turkish company in the western suburbs. "It was dark, the police entered the site and arrested about twenty people who slept," says a migrant employee of the Turkish company. "Policemen, batons in hand, were chasing men in field uniforms on the street," says a young woman who witnessed an arrest. In total, 280 people were arrested in the capital, including minors, according to the associations.

Finally, for the first time, Saturday, March 17, arrests took place in Oran, the second city of the country. "Around 5 o'clock in the morning, the police broke into our homes, says an Ivorian migrant who asks to remain anonymous. They asked us for our papers. They were looking for Nigeriens. " On March 8, however, on the occasion of the International Day of Women's Rights, the wali (prefect) of Oran had appeared on state television, accompanied by the Algerian Red Crescent, distributing roses and blankets to Nigerian migrant women.

 

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