Thousands of people live in uncertainty in Niger’s migrant camps.
The transit center in Assamaka, Niger has more than 4,000 migrants huddled together. Malians, Guineans, Ivorians, Syrians, Bangladeshis, they arrived there having been expelled from Algeria.
Every week, hundreds of migrants cross the barrier of this camp under the administration of the international organization for migration. The unfortunate left to fend for themselves.
“The Algerian military and police told us that the IOM here in Niger will send us to our country. I arrived here on January 11, it has now been 3 months, I tell you, 3 months. When we arrived here we were in the other camp, we were told that we are not recognized as IOM migrants and therefore, that we only have to pay for our transport to return to country. explains Abdoul-Karim Bambara, an Ivorian migrant.
Mohamed Mambou agrees. “When the Algerians catch you in their country, they take all the necessary information about you, but in the end, when they want to deport you, they don’t give you a single one of the documents they took from you. People never stay in Assamaka, they come to Arlit directly because of the suffering in Assamaka, but when you come here they don’t accept you.
The living conditions in the camp push the migrants to crimes. angering the town’s 1,500 residents.
“They arrived at a time when they are stealing the population, the animals of the population to slaughter them and feed themselves. It’s not because it’s thieves, but when the belly is hungry, you can’t do anything. You will necessarily find how to feed yourself. », says François Ibrahim, member of the NGO Alarme Phone.
Migrants are only waiting for one thing: to be repatriated to their countries of origin.
Article by Serge Patrick MANKOU
