Algeria stops forcing migrants to the Sahara after widespread outrage

PARIS – The deadly expulsions of Algerian migrants into the Sahara Desert virtually ceased after widespread condemnation and the brutal dismissal of two senior security officials

. Expulsions to the desert borders that Algeria shares with Niger and Mali have virtually stopped since the Associated Press reported less than three weeks ago that more than 13,000 people, including women and men children, had been deposited in this dangerous region. May 2017, according to officials of the International Organization for Migration of the UN

Before the June 26 report, the North African nation was sending hundreds of migrants a week into the ruthless desert, sometimes until their death. 19659004] Algeria refused repeated requests from the AP for comments on the evictions.

The European Union also declined to comment. The evictions took place as Europe pressured the North African governments to prevent them from crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

A humanitarian worker with contacts in Algeria told the PA that mbad detentions are continuing. including dozens of pregnant women, are stored in overcrowded prisons. The worker asked for anonymity to avoid retaliation by the Algerian government.

Algeria also continues to deport migrants from neighboring Niger, with whom it has concluded an expulsion agreement since 2015. But while migrants from other sub-Saharan countries have been abandoned in the desert secretly and forced to walk for miles under the hot sun, Nigerians have long been driven to the border by convoys. After the PA report in June, Algerian authorities urged local media to watch such a deportation round to prove that they had been committed with humanity.

In its few public statements, Algeria insisted that migrants be treated properly. Human Rights condemned the evictions in the desert.

"Algeria has the power to control its borders, but that does not mean that it can bring people together according to the color of their skin and throw them into the desert, regardless of Sarah Leah Human Rights Watch's Whitson said in a statement

that migrants filmed videos of themselves that unfolded in the desert, stumbling in the heat that reaches over 122 degrees Fahrenheit in summer. armed Algerian officers, they did not return.Of the more than two dozen migrants interviewed by AP journalists in Niger, almost all reported seeing dead during the forced march, which sometimes lasted for days

The living conditions of migrants in the Sahara desert have been a for humanitarian workers and governments. Africa and Europe. "We can not accept that African countries are abusing Africans, even if they enter the country illegally," said AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat. , said this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

EU officials said they have discussed evictions in the desert with representatives of the Algerian government privately in recent months, but the EU nevertheless, Algeria was there One of the few countries where she had hoped to set up centers to sort economic migrants from asylum seekers who were fleeing for their lives. Algeria refused the dubious honor, as did several other countries.