Published on : 02/06/2022 – 08:02
Doctors Without Borders denounces the inhuman treatment inflicted on migrants expelled from Algeria and Libya. According to Jamal Mrrouch, MSF’s head of mission in Niger, some 70% of migrants picked up by MSF have suffered physical violence.
According to the humanitarian organization, approximately 2,000 migrants are deported each month from these two countries to Niger. A number on the rise. MSF estimates that since the beginning of the year more than 14,000 migrants seeking to reach Europe have been turned back at the border and abandoned in the middle of the desert. The organization denounces the violence suffered by these migrants who take increasingly dangerous routes to avoid checks.
« The deportees are dropped off at what is called the zero point which is 15 kilometers from the nearest village of Assamaka, border between Algeria and Niger, on the territory of Niger. There is a lot of violence explains Jamal Mrrouch, MSF head of mission in Niger, joined by Alexandra Brangeon from the Africa editorial staff.
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Each time, our teams organize rescue operations, they find the injured, people with broken bones. There are women who have been raped and who are dumped at the border. There are minors…
Last week, we received two gunshot wounds who were trying to cross the Algerian border. In recent times, we have observed a population that is invisible, therefore suffering more violence during the expulsions from Algeria and Libya, but also criminal bandits who mainly attack migrants, who deprive them of all their money, their belongings, their papers, travel documents, and migrants sometimes find themselves abandoned in the desert… there is no respect for human beings. Migrants, we must respect their rights! »
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