Migrants dumped in the Sahara – and left to die
Pregnant women and children were among those forced to walk – sometimes at gunpoint – under a blistering sun without any food or water.
Footage showed hundreds of migrants crossing the scorching sands of the desert, where temperatures can reach up to 118F (48C). More than 13,000 people were believed to have been sent into the Sahara over the past 14 months, according to figures by a migration group.
Tens of thousands of people are thought to have died making the journey since 2014, with many going missing after collapsing in the sand.
Officials from the International Organisation for Migration warned of a ‘catastrophe’.
Many expelled migrants are dropped off near the border with Niger, at a spot known as ‘Point Zero’. Some were seen limping to the frontier village of Assamaka in the West African country.
More than two dozen survivors described how those in their group had simply vanished in the Sahara. ‘Women were lying dead, men... Other people went missing because they didn’t know the way,’ said Janet Kamara. Algeria’s mass expulsions have reportedly increased since October 2017, as the curb European on migrants North Union African heading renewed countries north pressure to to Europe via the Mediterranean.
A Brussels spokesman said it was aware of what Algeria was doing, but said ‘sovereign countries’ can expel migrants as long as they comply with international law.
Unlike Niger, Algeria takes none of the EU money intended to help with the migration crisis, although it received £83.9million in aid from Europe between 2014 and 2017.
The North African country provides no figures for its expulsions, but the number crossing on foot to Niger has risen since the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) started collecting data in 2017. It said a total of 11,276 migrants survived the march across the desert to Niger. At least another 2,500 were forced on a similar trek into neighbouring Mali, with an unknown number succumbing along the way. Migrants described being rounded up hundreds at a time and crammed into trucks and buses for the journey to Point Zero before being dropped off in the desert and pointed towards Niger. ‘There were people who couldn’t take it,’ said Aliou Kande, an 18year-old from Senegal. ‘They sat down and we left them. They were suffering too much.’ Liberian migrant Ju Dennis, who secretly filmed his deportation on his them saw proof.’ soldiers heading One phone, what now... witness Footage into standing they said: We the said ‘I are did. showed desert. by want here, troops And as to migrants Algerian and we expose occasionally got we force Algerian people fired authorities to warning start walking. last shots night to refused country to has comment. previously But denied the criticism that it is committing human rights abuses, calling the allegations ‘malicious’. The IOM says that for every migrant known to have died crossing the Mediterranean, up two are lost in the desert – a potential toll of 30,000 deaths since 2014.