Nigeriens, experts applaud junta’s repeal of EU-backed anti-migration law

The European Union is “very concerned about the consequences” of the latest decision by Niger’s military leaders to revoke an EU-backed law criminalizing transportation of migrants north from Agadez to Libya and Algeria for onward transition to Europe.

Over the weekend, Niger’s junta government signed an order abrogating the controversial legislation, known as Law 2015-36, designed to curb the smuggling of migrants from West Africa heading north toward Europe. The law was enacted in 2015, under heavy pressure from the EU, at the height of the European migrant crisis. The law made it illegal for migrants to travel from Niger’s ancient crossroad town of Agadez towards the country’s northern border and it also criminalized the work of the local “ferrymen” who transported these migrants towards Libya and Algeria.

The announcement effectively ended an eight-year security partnership between the EU and Niger that has seen the 27-member bloc paying €1.2 billion in development aid to the third poorest country in the world.

Before Niger enforced its 2015 anti-smuggling law, at least 4,000 migrants travelled through Agadez, heading northwards to Europe, every week without travel documents, according to UN estimates. The route from West Africa to the Sahara has also become a lucrative place for people smugglers. The number of migrants transiting through Niger and onto Europe dropped sharply over the years because of the law.

But experts and analysts have criticized the law, among other things, for the fact that the EU heavily influenced its passage and also since it disrupted many livelihoods dependent on the migrants in a region suffering from a drastic economic decline in the decade before its introduction. For example, a study by the Centre for Africa-Europe relations (ECDMP) found that migration provided “an economic buffer” because one-third of respondents in Agadez had earned some form of income from the migration industry.