NIAMEY: Algeria has turned back nearly 20,000 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to neighboring Niger since January, in often “brutal conditions,” Niamey-based NGO Alarme Phone Sahara told AFP on Monday.
Irregular migrants, including women and children, have since 2014 frequently been pushed back by Algeria, a key transit point for those attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
Alarme Phone Sahara — which rescues migrants in the vast desert spanning Algeria and Niger — recorded 19,798 people turned back between January and August, its communications officer Moctar Dan Yaye said.
Migrants are often expelled “in brutal conditions” and in the “worst cases, with deadly consequences,” the NGO said in a report published in late August.
“Migrants get arrested during raids on where they live or work in cities, or at the Tunisian border, and are pooled in Tamanrasset (southern Algeria) before being driven in trucks toward Niger,” said Yaye.
Nigeriens are then transported overland to Assamaka, the first Nigerien village on the other side of the border, where they are handled by local authorities.
Other nationals, however, are abandoned at “point zero,” a desert area marking the Algerian-Nigerien border.
From there, they are forced to walk 15 kilometers (nine miles) to Assamaka in extreme temperatures, said Yaye.
Once registered by Nigerien police in Assamaka, migrants are hosted in United Nations and Italian temporary housing centers, before being moved to other centers in northern Niger, Yaye added.
“We hear a lot of stories from migrants involving abuse, violence and confiscation of their belongings by Algerian forces,” he said.
Niger’s junta, which took power last year, in April summoned the Algerian ambassador to Niamey to protest against the “violent nature” of repatriation operations and deportations.
Algiers followed suit, calling in Niamey’s envoy and discarding the allegations as “baseless.”
Since Niger in November repealed a 2015 law that criminalized migrant trafficking, “numerous people have been moving freely” on migration routes “without fearing reprisals” as they did before, the NGO reported.
NGO: Algeria has turned back 20,000 migrants to Niger this year
https://arab.news/9v4tk
NGO: Algeria has turned back 20,000 migrants to Niger this year
- Irregular migrants, including women and children, have since 2014 frequently been pushed back by Algeria
Gaza access: Foreign press group welcomes Israel court deadline
- The Foreign Press Association, which represents hundreds of foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, filed a petition to the Supreme Court last year, seeking immediate access for international journalists to the Gaza Strip
JERUSALEM: The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem on Sunday welcomed the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision to set Jan. 4 as the deadline for Israel to respond to its petition seeking media access to Gaza.
Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, sparked by the attack on Israel, Israeli authorities have prevented foreign journalists from independently entering the devastated territory.
Israel has instead allowed, on a case-by-case basis, a handful of reporters to accompany its troops into the blockaded Palestinian territory.
The Foreign Press Association, which represents hundreds of foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, filed a petition to the Supreme Court last year, seeking immediate access for international journalists to the Gaza Strip.
On Oct. 23, the court held its first hearing in the case and gave Israeli authorities one month to develop a plan to grant access.
Since then, the court has granted several extensions to the Israeli authorities to develop their plan, but on Saturday, it set Jan. 4 as the final deadline.
“If the respondents (Israeli authorities) do not inform us of their position by that date, a decision on the request for a conditional order will be made on the basis of the material in the case file,” the court said.
The FPA welcomed the court’s latest directive.
“After two years of the state’s delay tactics, we are pleased that the court’s patience has finally run out,” the association said in a statement.
“We renew our call for the state of Israel to immediately grant journalists free and unfettered access to the Gaza Strip.
“And should the government continue to obstruct press freedoms, we hope that the Supreme Court will recognize and uphold those freedoms,” it added.
An AFP journalist serves on the FPA board.
Meanwhile, US Senator Lindsey Graham accused Hamas of rearming during a visit to Israel on Sunday, and charged that the Palestinian group was also consolidating power in Gaza.
“My impression is that Hamas is not disarming, they are rearming,” Graham said in a video statement issued by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
“It’s my impression that they are trying to consolidate power (and) not give it up in Gaza.”
Graham’s remarks came a day after mediators the US, Qatar, Egypt, and Turkiye urged both sides in the Gaza war to uphold the ceasefire.
Hamas has called on the mediators and Washington to stop Israeli “violations” of the ceasefire.
On Friday, six people, including two children, were killed in an Israeli bombing of a school serving as a shelter for displaced people, according to the civil defense agency in Gaza.
