Going to Migrants To Keep Them Away
NIAMEY, Niger — In a bare suite of offices, inside a compound off a dirt road, French bureaucrats are pushing France’s borders thousands of kilometers into Africa, hoping to head off would- be migrants.
All day they interview asylum seekers, as the African reality they want to escape swirls outside — joblessness and poverty, and, in some cases, political persecution.
If the French approve asylum, they are given plane tickets to France and spared the journey through the desert and on the boats across the Mediterranean that have brought millions of migrants to Europe in recent years.
“We’re here to stop people from dying in the Mediterranean,” said Sylvie Bergier-Diallo, deputy chief of the French mission in Niger.
But few are approved, and so the French delegation is also there to send a message to other would-be migrants: Stay home, and do not risk a journey for an asylum claim that would be denied in France.
After years of being buffeted by uncontrolled migration, Europe is pushing back. Italy is suspected of cutting deals with Libyan warlords who control the migration route. The European Union has sent delegations to African capitals, waving aid for leaders to keep their people at home. Now come the French.
“There’s a much more active approach to see that the immigrant stays as far away as possible from Europe, and this is completely to the detriment of those concerned,” said Philippe Dam of Human Rights Watch.
The French mission comes as President Emmanuel Macron pushes for a new law aimed at sending many migrants back home. His aim is to defuse the political pressures from the far right that have escalated with the migrant crisis.
While Europe’s new methods may be questionable, the results have been evident: Last year, for the first time since the crisis began years ago, the migration flow was reversed, according to Giuseppe Loprete, head of the United Nations migration agency office in Niger. About 100,000 would- be migrants returned through Niger from Libya, compared with 60,000 who traversed the desert country heading toward Europe.
In itself, the so- called French filtration effort here is so small that it is not expected to have much effect on the overall migration flow. Only a few such missions have embarked since Mr. Macron announced the policy last summer.
In a recent week, 85 people were interviewed by officials from the French refugee agency, known as Ofpra. Still, the French have been the first to undertake this kind of outreach, working closely with the United Nations, out of its refugee agency’s compound in Niamey.
One recent Saturday, 136 Eritre- ans and Somalis were flown to Niamey by the United Nations to possibly meet with the French.
Welella, an 18-year- old Eritrean girl, was rescued from Libya and had spent time in a refugee camp in Sudan. Her father is a soldier, her siblings had all been drafted into Eritrea’s military service, and she risked the same. She had long planned on fleeing. “One day I succeeded,” she said.
When asked by a French official, Lucie, what would happen to her if she returned, Welella said,“They will put me underground.”
After nearly two hours of questioning, France was one step away from welcoming Welella. “You will have the right to enter France legally,” Lucie told her.
Welella smiled, barely.