Algeria abandons hundreds of other African migrants in the desert | News | DW



[ad_1]

A relief official in neighboring Niger said Sunday that nearly 600 African migrants in Algeria had been abandoned in the desert with little food or water before they were rescued.

This comes after a report from a UN migration official Saturday, the Algerian government has begun to expel migrants in the Sahara desert. Recently, they left 391 people on some of the most hostile terrain in the world in the middle of the summer, when temperatures can reach over 40 degrees Celsius.

According to a tweet from Giuseppe Loprete, head of the United Nations International Organization for Migration in Niger, migrants from 16 different countries were abandoned on the border with Niger.

Last month, the Associated Press reported that Algeria had left more than 13,000 migrants in the desert of Niger and Mali since May 2017, forcing them to walk or die in the scorching heat .

After the release of the AP report, the evictions appeared to have been suspended. IOM Mali said that the normally secret Algerian government seemed to want to make an effort to communicate the movement of migrants.

A humanitarian worker with contacts in Algeria told AP that the government was collecting migrants in prison in detention centers. IOM was forced to find migrants who stumble in the desert, and many said that some of their companions had died en route.

Algeria has reached an agreement with the Nigerian government to expel its citizens by convoy directly to Agadez. However, migrants from other countries who have been repeatedly rounded up are trucked about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the nearest source of water and forced to walk to Niger.

Algerian anger [19659002] Algeria criticized the UN agency for its comments on migrants

"What the IOM does not say, it's that she is doing nothing to help them [when they are in Algeria] It is Algeria that provides them with help in distributing food kits Hbaden Kacimi, a Ministry of the Interior official, added that Algeria had proposed to the IOM to set up a system in Assamaka, a Nigerian town about 15 kilometers from the border, to save the migrants avoided in Algeria.

  Migrants in the Sahara on a truck (photo-alliance / AP Photo / J. Delay)

Migrants reportedly abandoned in the desert by Algeria

Algerian Minister of the Interior Noureddine Bedoui also denounced no campaign "[Algeria] has always supported African migrants and spared no effort, including humanitarian, to to give them badistance and badistance, "he said.

whose member governments have citizens among expelled migrants, demanded that Algeria stop abandoning people in the desert.

The Algerian government, however, refused to recognize this behavior. Shortly after the release of the AP report and a report by Human Rights Watch detailing the evictions in the desert, Algeria asked local journalists to observe the mbad detention of migrants , claiming that it was proof of their humane treatment. allowed to travel beyond the detention centers where they are held before being deported.

Since the beginning of the year, IOM has conducted 18 relief operations in the region, involving 3,000 people.

av / sms (AP, AFP

Every evening at 6:30 pm UTC, DW publishers send a selection of quality news and journalism, and you can sign up to receive it right here

[ad_2]
Source link