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Many Africans are managing to evade the coronavirus blockade barriers in Niger, the Sahelian crossroads of migrants, as they continue their dangerous journey through the desert to the Mediterranean Sea and eventually Europe.
The flow of migrants has slowed but has not dried up despite tight controls in the capital Niamey and the increase in desert security patrols that have detained hundreds of people as desperate as ever to reach Europe, officials and former smugglers said.
“Gambians, Senegalese, Malians, everyone is determined to go there,” said Alassane Mamane, a retired civil servant who lives in Agadez, a crossroads in the desert and a starting point for many migrants heading to Libya in the Mediterranean.
“A migrant told me:” I would rather die of coronavirus than live in misery, “said Mamane.
Sliding through the holes in the net is getting harder and harder.
Since the anti-migrant plan established in 2015 to strengthen patrols, security forces “have further intensified their vigilance to enforce border closure measures aimed at fighting the coronavirus,” said a local official.
Former human smuggler Idrissa Salifou confirmed that it was now much more difficult for migrants.
“Before we could cross little by little, but due to anti-coronavirus measures (such as border closures), the road is really blocked,” said Salifou.
It got more difficult when Niamey was cut. AFP / Archive / Soulemaine AG ANARA
“Soldiers comb the entire border line day and night. And on the other hand, Libyans have become very vigilant, “he said.
Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, has only officially registered 781 coronavirus infections, with 42 people dying from the COVID-19 disease.
Niger has already decreed a state of emergency, closed its borders with Libya and its other neighbors, and cut off the capital, Niamey, from the rest of the country.
‘Skirt Control Points’
Libya, where migrants have suffered the violence and lawlessness that followed the overthrow of Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, is also affected by the coronavirus.
However, migrants are heading to the border communities of Niger Dirkou and Madama in hopes of entering Libya, but steps have been taken to block them, according to Bourkari Mamane, mayor of Agadez, a large city in northern Niger.
But the flow is far from drying up.
“They don’t care about the coronavirus.” AFP / ISSOUF SANOGO
Migrants “are trying in large numbers to enter Libya. They manage to skirt the control points. The unfortunate are picked up by military patrols, “Boubakar Jerome, mayor of Dirkou, a city near Libya, told AFP.
In less than two months, more than 300 migrants have been captured by the Niger army along the border with Libya, the mayor said.
Last week, 33 migrants were detained in the same area, the mayor said.
Bachir Amma, who runs an association of former human traffickers, said the migrants are as determined as ever.
“They don’t care about the coronavirus. In Agadez, some” ghettos “have reopened and migrants are looking for any chance of going to the desert,” said Amma.
The “ghettos” are patios of buildings where migrants are housed.
Idrissa Salifou, the former human smuggler, said: “Recently, around 60 vehicles carrying migrants managed to enter Libya, but were quickly picked up by Libyan border guards who brought them to a city in that country.”
In Niger, migrants who are detained or rescued in the desert are quarantined for 14 days at temporary sites in the north where the International Migration Office (IOM) has welcomed 1,600 migrants stranded in the desert since they closed the borders at the end of March.
New routes
For example, 764 migrants, including 391 from Niger, 140 from Mali and 101 from Guinea, have been quarantined in Assamaka, on the border with Algeria.
They include children, pregnant women and injured people, the UN agency said.
“As soon as they get out of isolation, some migrants try their luck again,” said Boubakar Jerome.
Last week, the UN agency launched an urgent appeal to donors for $ 10 million in supplemental aid to meet the needs of migrants.
He said he has rented additional facilities and reinforced prevention measures at six transit centers that are currently at their maximum capacity.
In an attempt to discourage traffickers, the Niamey government adopted a law in 2015 to make migrant smuggling a crime, with sentences of up to 30 years in prison.
In early 2019, Nigerian President Mahamadou Issoufou credited the anti-immigrant plan, backed by the European Union, for reducing the number of migrants passing through Niger dramatically from 100,000 to 150,000 per year by 2016 to 5,000 and 10,000 migrants per year. today.
During a visit to Niamey the same year, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte praised an 80 percent reduction in 2018 in arrivals of clandestine immigrants to Italian shores.
More than the desert patrols, the game changer has been the decision to isolate Niamey from the rest of the country by prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving without permission.
Many migrants from West Africa used to travel through Niamey before heading to Agadez or the desert gates.
“With Niamey’s cut, more and more immigrants changed their itinerary: they are now traveling through Nigeria, whose borders are more porous,” said Bachir Amma, the former trafficker.
Boubakar Jerome, the mayor of Dirkou, agrees: “There are a thousand and one routes: some of the lucky ones manage to make their way in Libya.”
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