Algeria Deports Migrants

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Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger withdrew their ambassadors from Algeria earlier this month over border security disputes. For migrants fleeing poverty, conflict or climate change, Algeria serves as a transit point en route to Europe.

Algerian authorities rounded up more than 1,800 migrants and left them at the Nigerien border in a record expulsion earlier this month, a Niger-based migrant rights group said.

Alarmphone Sahara, which monitors migration across the region, said the migrants were bused to a remote desert area known as “Point Zero” after being apprehended in Algerian cities.

Abdou Aziz Chehou, the group’s national coordinator that 1,845 migrants without legal status in Algeria had been counted, arrived in Niger’s border town of Assamaka after the April 19 mass expulsion. That pushed the total number of expelled migrants arriving in Assamaka this month beyond 4,000, he said.

The figure does not include those who may attempt to return north into Algeria, Chehou added. The mass deportations come amid rising tensions between Algeria and its southern neighbours, all now led by military juntas that ousted elected governments previously aligned with Algiers.

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Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger withdrew their ambassadors from Algeria earlier this month over border security disputes. For migrants fleeing poverty, conflict or climate change, Algeria serves as a transit point en route to Europe.