A new wave of more than 600 migrants expelled from Algeria arrives in Niger
Migrants on the border between Niger and Algeria, near Assamaka (illustrative image) Jerome Delay / ASSOCIATED PRESS
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More than 600 migrants from a dozen sub-Saharan countries have arrived in northern Niger after being turned back from Algeria, authorities in Niamey told AFP.
The information was confirmed by the World Organization for Migration, which however did not give figures.
This is the second time this month that such an influx of African migrants have been turned back from Algeria.
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According to the Nigerien authorities, they arrived on foot three days ago, in Assamaka, the city of Niger closest to the Algerian border: 669 migrants from West Africa and Central Africa expelled from Algeria.
Among them mostly men, but also 14 women and 5 minors.
Mostly from Mali and Guinea, but also from Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Sudan... A dozen nationalities from sub-Saharan Africa.
The World Organization for Migration has confirmed "
the arrival of this wave of migrants
", without specifying their number.
She offered to provide them with assistance, in particular to admit candidates for voluntary return to the Assamaka transit centre.
This is not the first time that Algeria, which has no asylum procedure, has turned back migrants.
But this is the second influx of this magnitude in less than a month in Niger.
Last June, the humanitarian NGO Doctors Without Borders denounced "
the inhuman treatment
" inflicted in Algeria on West African migrants seeking to reach Europe.
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To read also: Niger: nearly 800 migrants turned back by Algeria, including dozens of minors
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Niger
Algeria
International Migrations