Reliefweb Deplores Algeria’s Continuing Crackdown on Sub-Saharans

International NGOs and rights watchdogs continue to deplore Algeria’s meagre record in respecting migrants’ rights as the North African country continues its black manhunt, summarily deporting thousands of Sub-Saharan migrants and asylum seekers in harsh conditions.

“People who have been deported from Algeria earlier this month, stated they were detained in makeshift camps for a few days before being taken on trucks and sent across the border at gunpoint,” Reliefweb said in a report dated March 30.

“They then had to walk through the desert for hours to reach In Khalil, the first town in Mali. Some migrants also reported being robbed by armed groups along the way,” the report adds.

Algerian Interior Minister told MPs recently that the country deported 25,000 Sub-Saharans since 2015, adding that deportations are still undergoing.

Algeria’s ill treatment of Sub-Saharans earned it the wrath and condemnation of African countries. “Niger has repeatedly protested the inhumane treatment suffered by its nationals in Algeria and in February the Minister of the Interior, Mohamed Bazoum, criticized the Algerian authorities actions of expelling West African migrants to Niger and called on Algeria to repatriate them,” said Reliefweb.

Last year the Guinean President, Alpha Conde, chose to recall the Guinean Ambassador to Algiers in response to Algerian anti-migrant discrimination and xenophobia, the report recalls.

Earlier this month, repatriated Malians protested the mistreatment of sub-Saharan migrants by the Algerian government by vandalising the Algerian embassy in Bamako, Mali. The protestors called on the African Union to tell Algeria that membership in the continental union demands that fellow Africans be treated with respect and dignity.

Algeria was also among the countries that rejected to sign the protocol on the freedom of movement of people and right of residence attached to the African Union’s African Continental Free Trade Area agreement.