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Nearly 600 African migrants, "repressed" from Algeria and rescued in the desert, arrived mid-week in northern Niger, said a local official Sunday.
"For three days, a first wave of more than 180 Nigerians arrived in Agadez, followed by another (wave) of at least 400 foreigners, "said Sunday to AFP a municipal official of Agadez, the big city of northern Niger, close to Algeria
This official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the "usual atrocious conditions" in which migrants were "abandoned" near the border with Niger.
"According to their testimony, they were brought to the side of the border," he said. "Left with a minimum of water and food," they then "walked a good fifty kilometers before being rescued." Among the repressed Nigerians, there are "children and many women", including "some have arrived sick."
Nigeriens are already supported by local authorities and other West Africans by the International Organization of Migration (IOM), assured city official.
In a tweet Friday, IOM's representative in Niger, Giuseppe Loprete, said his agency had assisted 391 migrants from 16 nationalities abandoned at the border with Niger and Algeria. Among these repressed, there are Ivorians, Senegalese, Guineans and Cameroonians.
Reacting to this tweet, Hassen Kacimi, in charge of the migration file at the Algerian Ministry of Interior said that "IOM has reported truncated information. "
" Migrants arriving at the borders of Algeria are abandoned 100 km from this border. They walk for 10 days in the Niger desert Ténéré before arriving at In Guezzam (Algerian-Niger border) in desperate conditions, "he told AFP.
But," there the IOM does not say that it does not do anything to help them. It is Algeria that provides them with help and assistance by distributing food kits and water, "he added.
And when they are" on the way back to the Nigerian cities Arlit and Agadez, it is up to the IOM to intervene and not to Algeria. "
According to Mr. Kacimi, Algeria proposed to IOM to install a device in Assamaka , a Nigerian town located some 15 km from the border, to rescue migrants prevented from returning to Algeria, but "IOM is absent on the whole line."
Earlier in the day, the Algerian minister of the Interior Noureddine Bedoui denounced "a campaign of non-constructive and unfounded criticism". Algeria "has always supported African migrants and spared no effort, including humanitarian, to lend them aid and assistance," he said at the opening of an Algerian-Nigerian meeting centered on cooperation on border security
To deny the allegations of ill-treatment of sub-Saharan migrants, Algeria had invited the media in early July to follow the expulsion of more than 300 of them to Niger. [19659014]! function (f, b, e, g, n, t, s)
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