The organization Médecins sans frontières (MSF), which regularly organizes missions to rescue lost or abandoned migrants in the Sahel desert, has counted more than 14,000 West African migrants who have been violently returned from Algeria since the beginning of the war. year.
« From January to May 2022, 14,196 migrants were turned back from Algeria, and abandoned in the middle of the desert on the Algerian-Nigerian border, at a place called ‘Point Zéro’, 15 km from the city of Assamaka », indicates the NGO in a press release published Wednesday, June 1.
According to MSF, 2,000 people wanting to reach Europe are expelled every month from Algeria and Libya. Among them are the seriously injured, women victims of rape or people suffering from significant trauma.
The NGO indicates that nearly 70% of the people taken care of by it testify to having suffered violence and abuse at the borders of Algeria and Libya. “The seriousness of the abuses committed against migrants is indisputable. The testimonies of our patients and their state of physical and mental health on their arrival in our health facilities prove that these people experienced extreme violence during their expulsion from Algerian and Libyan territories”, deplores Jamal Mrrouch, head of mission of MSF. in Niger.
The organization attacks the resolutions of European countries taken in the context of the fight against illegal immigration, which do not solve the problems at the root. “The initiatives driven by the European Union to stem the migratory phenomenon oblige migrants and smugglers to take excessively dangerous corridors in the desert to avoid controls, with the consequence of increasing the exploitation of migrants by traffickers. The migratory routes have become more deadly”, she regrets.
MSF “calls on the regional authorities and their partners to find urgent and appropriate responses to put an end to the mistreatment of migrants returned from Algeria and Libya in the Sahel desert”.
Jamal Mrrouch affirms that « as a humanitarian actor and witness of the terrible suffering of thousands of migrants in this region of the Sahel, it is our duty to denounce this humanitarian tragedy ».
And to continue, « it is also our duty to appeal to the authorities concerned, to the European Union and to humanitarian partners so that immediate measures are taken for the respect of human dignity in border control. We can no longer continue to simply ignore this situation thinking that the problem will solve itself”.
According to MSF data, in 2021 a total of 27,208 migrants were deported from Algeria in inhumane conditions to Assamaka on the Niger border. In 2020, there were more than 23,000, an increase of 17% compared to last year.
The Organization Maroc Afrika Cultures et Développements, OMA, joins its voice to that of MSF and also denounces this inhuman behavior of the Algerian military authorities who continually violate human rights.
OMA, an organization of African civil society, present and represented in some thirty countries on the continent, also supports MSF’s appeal, launched to the parties concerned directly or indirectly, to find urgent responses adapted to the situation. Neighboring countries, countries of origin of migrants or the African Union cannot remain silent in the face of these human rights violations perpetrated in broad daylight by an unscrupulous military regime.
The international community, which is quick to step up and blacklist the problems faced by people fleeing the war in Ukraine, must also step up to vigorously denounce these dramatic violations of the most basic rights, the right to life and respect for the physical integrity of this frank of the African immigrant population, illegal wanting to escape the war of underdevelopment and famine.
The Algerian authorities still qualify the accusations against them as unfounded, yet many NGOs are unanimous on this point and there is no shortage of testimonies.
By OMA Newsletter N° 725 of 02/06/2022
Article published under the direction of Dr. Najib Kettani
The OMA, NGO with an Intercontinental vocation
For the development of cultural exchanges
Valuing human potential
The promotion and consolidation of Africa’s development, and
Inter-African integration
