AA / Niamey / Kané Illa
Niger has repatriated 530 of its nationals who were living in precarious conditions in Senegal, the Niger government announced on Saturday.
Mainly made up of women and children who lived on begging, the repatriated people arrived in Niamey on the night of Friday to Saturday on a special flight chartered by the Nigerien government. They were welcomed by Interior Minister Hamadou Souley Adamou.
A second flight which should transport several hundred other Nigeriens is expected in the next few hours.
The decision to repatriate Nigeriens practicing begging in Senegal was taken on Tuesday at the end of a crisis meeting chaired by the President of the Republic Mohamed Bazoum, following the arrest by the Senegalese police of several Nigerien women and children who begging in the streets of Dakar.
In a press release published following the council, the Nigerien government indicated that “the presence of these people in such distant lands has no connection with the situation of insecurity linked to terrorism or the food deficit”.
The government also deplored “a practice that swears by our social and religious values and is prohibited by the laws and regulations of the Republic of Niger”.
Under the pretext of fleeing food insecurity, many Nigeriens, mainly women and children, emigrate each year to certain West African countries and even to the Maghreb, notably Algeria and Libya. In the various host countries, they turn into beggars.
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