“France 24” pointed out the deportation of thousands of sub-Saharan migrants and asylum seekers by the Algerian authorities to Niger in a manhunt fashion.
The French state-run TV channel received its reporter Mehdi Chebil who investigated the issue and authored an article entitled “Migrants expelled from Algeria to northern Niger: The long wait to return home”
In this article, posted on infomigrants.net, the investigative journalist highlighted the complications and difficulties that the expelled migrants are facing because of the Algerian authorities’ decision.
Thousands of non-Nigerien sub-Saharan Africans are left every year at the boundary between Algeria and Niger in the Sahara, at a site called Point Zero.
As a result, the Assamaka transit camp northern Niger is now swarming with sub-Saharan immigrants. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is striving to keep up with the growing number.
“We process about 100 profiles per day, so it takes about 10 days to identify 1,000 people”, an IOM agent revealed on condition of anonymity, adding that “the problem is that, as soon as we move migrants, Algeria sends others. It exceeds our capacities.”
At least 14,000 migrants, including minors, were expelled from Algeria to Niger between January and May 2022, according to the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).