Sub-Saharan migrants face an “alarming situation” in Algerian, Tunisian and Libyan prisons, the Dakar-based NGO “Action for Human Rights and Friendship” (ADHA) decried, calling for an “immediate” end to these practices, which are contrary to international human rights conventions.
“ADHA expresses its deep concern at the alarming situation of sub-Saharan migrants in Algerian, Tunisian and Libyan prisons, including around a hundred Senegalese nationals currently stranded in Niger”, the humanitarian NGO underlined in a press release.
In Algeria, some 9,000 sub-Saharan migrants were “expelled and forcibly transferred” to the borders of Niger by Algerian security forces between early January and early April 2024, the NGO recalled.
According to ADHA, the number of sub-Saharan migrants intercepted in Tunisia rose from 31,297 in 2022 to 69,963 in 2023.
“In Algeria and Tunisia, migrants face forced expulsions, arbitrary arrests and numerous acts of discrimination”, the humanitarian NGO stated, adding that these “men, women and children, seeking a better future, find themselves today in extremely worrying, precarious and dangerous living conditions”.
The NGO also stressed that Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Niger have become, for several years, transit points for sub-Saharan migrants seeking to reach Europe.
“However, the deterioration of security conditions, restrictive migration policies, under the complicit eye of some EU countries and the lack of reactions and coordination from the migrants’ countries of origin, have led to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis”, the NGO said.
In view of this situation, the humanitarian organization called for an “immediate” end to all practices that are contrary to international human rights conventions.