Algeria has forcibly deported more than 1,800 migrants to the Niger border in what is being described as one of its biggest mass expulsions to date. According to Alarmphone Sahara, a group that monitors migration in the Sahel region, the deportation occurred earlier this month and involved migrants being dropped off in the remote desert area known as “Point Zero.”
Abdou Aziz Chehou, the national coordinator of Alarmphone Sahara, revealed that 1,845 undocumented migrants were transported from Algerian cities and left at the border town of Assamaka in Niger on April 19. This brings the total number of migrants expelled to Niger from Algeria this month to over 4,000.
Many of the expelled migrants had used Algeria as a transit point on their journey toward Europe, fleeing poverty, violence, and climate change impacts in their home countries. However, Algeria’s increasing crackdowns, along with tougher border patrols across the Mediterranean, have left thousands stranded in North African countries with poor human rights records and limited support systems.
Alarmphone Sahara reported that more than 30,000 migrants have been expelled from Algeria so far in 2024 alone. Human rights advocates say these deportations are often done without due process and leave people abandoned in harsh desert conditions with little access to food, water, or shelter.
Relations between Algeria and its southern neighbors — Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso — have recently worsened, especially after those countries came under military rule. All three nations recently withdrew their ambassadors from Algiers due to disagreements over border security, raising concerns that political tensions may be contributing to harsher treatment of migrants.
These mass expulsions also appear to contradict a 2014 agreement that permits the return of only Nigerien nationals across the border. However, many of the recent deportees are not from Niger and include people from various sub-Saharan African countries.
So far, neither Algerian nor Nigerien officials have commented publicly on this latest round of expulsions. These actions are rarely reported in Algerian media and continue to raise alarm among international observers and human rights organizations.