Algeria expels over 2000 sub-Saharans to Niger in inhumane conditions

Algeria continues its refoulement of Sub-Saharans abandoning over 2000 on August 1-12 on the borders with Niger in inhumane conditions, according to French radio RFI.

The migrants were dumped in the desert in extreme heat about 15 kilometers away from Essamaka, where an IOM center is based.

Aziz Chehou, coordinator of Alarm Phone Sahara (APS) based in Agadez said the mistreated migrants have been subjected to a degrading treatment by Algerian security forces, citing cases of separated children from their parents.

This dehumanization has so far affected some 25,000 Sub-Saharans who have suffered degrading treatment by the Algerian army, he said.

In April, Niger summoned Algeria’s ambassador to denounce the harsh treatment by Algerian authorities of Niger migrants, who have been violently upheld, robbed by Algerian authorities before being abandoned in the desert.

The degrading treatment of Sub-Saharan migrants in southern Algeria has been a common practice for decades by a regime that imposed a media blackout on the plight of migrants in the country.

On the other side of the border, in Niger and Mali, rights watchdogs have denounced refoulement cases and violent treatment of migrants, who are bussed and thrown in the harsh desert borders with Mali.