Despite the legalisation of refugee aid in Niger, many refugees are dying in the Sahara. Responsible is Brussels, which supports neighboring governments in migration defence agreements.
The European Union’s migration policy includes the gradual extension of its border management into the African continent. African countries bordering the Mediterranean receive substantial payments from Brussels in return for stopping refugees on their way to Europe. Tunisia and Egypt have concluded their own “migration agreements” with the EU Commission for this purpose, with other countries, including Morocco, set to follow.
The externalisation of the European border regime is forcing people seeking protection onto increasingly difficult routes. As a result, more and more are dying in the Mediterranean, with the UN refugee agency UNHCR counting 613 drowned or missing people this year alone as of 4 June.
But for many people, even the passage before reaching the Mediterranean ends fatally, especially in the Sahara. Now Vincent Cochetel, who is responsible for the situation on the central Mediterranean route at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), is drawing attention to this.
There is a lot of discussion about rescues in the Mediterranean, but rescue in the desert is also necessary, said Cochetel in Geneva on Tuesday. His appeal is aimed at humanitarian organisations, which are represented in large numbers in the capitals of many African countries. However, there are hardly any refugees and migrants there, explained Cochetel. The organisations must therefore expand their presence to the dangerous migration routes.
According to the UNHCR, hundreds of thousands of people risk their lives travelling in sub-Saharan Africa. They are exposed to the risk of violence, torture and kidnapping. People are also left alone in small towns by smugglers without supplies, said Cochetel, pointing on the need for emergency aid and information about the dangers of migration. That is why the organisations must cooperate with local authorities in the areas, he said. The UNHCR called on donor countries to make more money available for this work.
The major migration routes through the Sahara start in Niger. Following the successful military coup a year ago and the arrest of the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, the military government cancelled a law passed in 2015 against the “smuggling of migrants”. This means that helping people to flee is legal again. All judgements issued since the implementation of this law have been declared null and void.
According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the UN organisation responsible for migration, there has been a significant increase in migration between Niger and Libya since the lifting of the “smuggling law”. Convoys are also protected by the Nigerien army, which reduces the risk of death. The price of a journey to Libya is also said to have halved to around €200.
However, many people continue to die in the desert after being pushed back by police forces from the EU’s North African partners. This is confirmed by reports from Alarm Phone Sahara, which – just as Cochetel requested on Tuesday – provides people with information about dangerous migration routes in Niger and operates an emergency number for refugees stranded in the desert.
The Alarm Phone Sahara last documented such a “pushback” from Algeria in May. The people were left behind in “deportation convoys” at the Algerian-Nigerian border and at least eight people died in the process.
Human rights organisations have also reported similar crimes in Tunisia. Some of the pushbacks into the desert took place on the same weekend last summer that the President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, signed an agreement on migration defence with the government in Tunis.
Since then, Tunisian security authorities have abducted 8,664 people into the desert – at least that is the number of people Libyan officials claim to have apprehended by the end of March. Research groups from international media recently reported that at least 29 people had been killed in the Tunisian-Libyan border region.
“These actions are not individual cases, but a system. In Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania, thousands of people with black skin colour are being detained, abducted and abandoned in desert regions,” writes the German magazine “Der Spiegel”, which was involved in the research. Europe’s border security has effectively shifted: “For people from sub-Saharan Africa, it often no longer begins in Melilla in Spain or Lampedusa in Italy – but further south, on the edge of the Sahara.”
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: In April, Algerian authorities deported hundreds of refugees to the Nigerien desert (Alarm Phone Sahara).
