Mass deportations from Maghreb countries

Algerian-Nigerian border region, 15 kilometres from the village of Assamaka, end of August 2024: People are unloaded by a deportaton convoy escorted by the Algerian gendarmerie at ‘Point Zéro’ in the desert in the border strip. Several have broken limbs, one from an accident during the journey, the others from beatings by the Algerian policemen. Another is seriously ill and almost unconscious, one is severely traumatsed and can no longer speak. The Alarme Phone Sahara team from Assamaka rushes to Point Zéro in a small three-wheeled pick-up truck, loads the injured and sick onto the fatbed and takes them to the infirmary, while others make their way to the village on foot.

A typical scenario of the regular mass deportatons to the border regions and thetireless struggle of solidarity initatves to save human lives.

The Algerian state, which cooperates with Germany and Italy on police matters with the aim of fighting migration, is carrying out raids and mass deportations with increasing frequency, thus positioning itself as one of the most relentless actors in the border regime in the Sahel-Saharan region.

In 2024, more than 31000 people, mostly citizens of many different sub-Saharan African countries, were deported from Algeria to Niger via Assamaka - the highest number in recent years.

Human rights abuse from arrests to dumping people in the desert

People are regularly arrested in mass raids, especially in Algiers, Oran and other cities of Northern Algeria, in neighbourhoods, at working places, apartments and places such as construction sites or empty buildings used by migrants as temporary accommodation. Images have been shared showing desperate people seeking protection from the security forces’ actions on site cranes or on the roofs of buildings under construction.

After arrests, in detention centres and during deportation convoys, deportees are subjected to systematic acts of violence by the security forces, being beaten, physically abused and stripped of their mobiles, their money and all their belongings. Even their travel documents are confiscated and damaged.

»If they catch you, they'll take everything you've got. If you have a phone, they'll take it. Money, they take it. The police leaves nothing with you.«

citizen of Burkina Faso deported to Assamaka

What's more, the deportees are crammed into inhumane conditions, first in buses accompanied by the police from the North to Tamanrasset. In Tamanrasset, people are loaded onto lorries operated by private transport companies and accompanied by the Gendarmerie to be transported across the desert for days, facing the heat of the day and the cold of the night, depending on the time of year, to the border with Niger. As a result, many deportees arrive in a critical condition, often with broken bones, ill, weakened and traumatised.

Citizens of Niger are usually deported in ‘official convoys’, based on a deportation agreement between the authorities of Niger and Algeria since 2014. These ‘official convoys’ are accompanied by the Algerian Red Crescent and transported to the village of Assamaka where the people are handed over to the Nigerien authorities and transported directly to Arlit or Agadez.

Citizens of many other mostly subsaharan countries are usually deported in ‘unofficial convoys’, dropped off at ‘Point Zero’, located in the desert 15km from the village of Assamaka, and forced to fend for themselves on foot, in the heat and on a desert track where there is a high risk of losing your orientation. People repeatedly reported that the Algerian gendarmes fired shots into the air to force them to leave Algerian territory quickly.

The mass deportations from Tunisia, Algeria and Libya have left thousands of people stranded in Assamaka, Agadez, Arlit, Dirkou and other places in Niger. Many are left completely destitute after the police have taken their money, mobile phones, valuables and sometimes even their shoes before deporting them.

Many of the deportees can neither continue their journey nor return to their countries of origin. Due to a lack of other prospects, many of them turn to the so-called voluntary return programmes of the International Organization of Migration (IOM). However, these often only work with long delays, and many are unable to access the IOM camps, allegedly due to a lack of space.

As a result, many of the people stuck in Niger have no other option than to try to find accommodation in the migrant ghettos or make ends meet on the streets. Their living conditions are extremely precarious. Women and girls in particular are at risk of sexualised exploitation and violence.

A lack of access to healthcare also leads to deaths, especially among children, from infectious diseases such as measles.

Again and again, migrant communites are turning to the IOM or various African governments with protest actions and video messages, calling for a speedy evacuation and return to their countries of origin – not because that is what they would normally want, but because they have no other prospects.

All of this is taking place against a backdrop where a large part of the local Nigerien population, especially in rural areas, is living on subsistence level and is affected by food crises. Nigerien citzens, often including women with children, are themselves one of the largest groups of those travelling to the Maghreb states in search of income opportunites, where they are threatened by raids and mass deportations.

The situaton in Niger clearly shows how European states are shifting the responsibility for the survival of people who have to flee or are looking for better living conditons onto one of the most impoverished countries in the world.

In Assamaka, the Alarme Phone Sahara team drives to Point Zero with its tricycles if a deportation convoy arrives, sometimes supported by Doctors without Borders (MSF), to rescue people who are too weak, sick or injured to walk and transport them to Assamaka and to the Integrated Health Centre (CSI). Alarme Phone Sahara's tricycles also serve for daily transports to the Health Centre and to assist the estimated 3081 refugees from Mali housed in a camp outside the village.

In Agadez, Alarme Phone Sahara provides a collective kitchen for migrants, psychological and psychosocial counselling and assistance for traumatised persons, support for medical urgencies, support for basic necessities for people in migrant ghettos and assistance for phonecalls with family members.

Practical support for migrants in distress is also provided in Arlit and in the Kaouar region.

The Alarme Phone Sahara team in the Kaouar region organizes search and rescue missions in case of distress in the desert.

Alarme Phone Sahara operates a free 24-hour telephone hotline for migrants in emergencies in the whole northern region of Niger.

»If they catch you, they'll take everything you've got. Your phone, they take everything. If you have a phone, they'll take it. Money, they take everything. If you have money, if you have a phone, the police leave nothing with you. They take everything.«

citizen of Burkina Faso deported to Assamaka

»If we are caught in Algeria, we will be thrown here, our phones, our money, everything will be taken from us. We no longer have any phones. We have to pay to get in touch with our families.«

Mohammed, Senegalese citizen deported to Assamaka

»Most of us were taken from Tunisia, others from Algeria, others left from Morocco, where they were trying to cross to Tunisia. (...) But we were pushed back. And after we were pushed back, we ended up here in a centre for migrants from Niger in the town of Assamaka.«

citizen of Cameroon deported to Assamaka

»We wanted to go to Tunisia to continue on to Europe. But that didn't work out, we were sent back to Algeria and the Algerians grabbed us and sent us here to the desert, to Assamaka, to an IOM camp here in Assamaka.«

Mohammed, Senegalese citizen deported to Assamaka

»In Tunisia, they beat me up. I thought I was going to die. And then they took all our food, everything that was in our hands. Then they took us in their car and dumped us in the desert.«

Ismail Soumaoro, citizen of Ivory Coast deported to Assamaka

»I was in Gafsa in Tunisia.(...) They beat me up. I thought I was going to die. And then they took all our food, everything that was in our hands. Food, water, they took everything (…). Then they took us in their car and dumped us in the desert. We had to walk 50 kilometres to the Algerian border. And the Algerian police caught us and turned us back here.«

Ismail Soumaoro, citizen of Ivory Coast deported to Assamaka