Migration | Algeria: Mass deportation to the desert

Once again, Algerian authorities are taking massive action against refugees living in the country . While the country is known for such waves of arrests and deportations, the current actions are nonetheless unprecedented. According to the Nigerien state broadcaster Radio Télévision du Niger (RTN), Algeria deported 4,975 people to its southern neighbor Niger between April 1 and 21. 2,899 of these are Nigerien citizens, the others come from African countries such as Senegal, Sudan, Somalia, and Chad, as well as from Bangladesh.

Another deportation convoy with an as yet unconfirmed number of people reached the small town of Assamaka in northern Niger, near the Algerian-Nigerian border , only on April 25, according to the Alarme Phone Sahara network, which, along with Nigerien authorities and aid organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, is also present in the Saharan border region. According to the activist network, 6,840 people have been deported from Algeria since the beginning of the year – not including the most recent convoy.

A renewed humanitarian emergency like the one in 2023 is almost inevitable. Back then, more than 10,000 people were deported from Algeria in just three months and flocked to Assamaka, a town with a population of around 1,500. The aid infrastructure in the town virtually collapsed. Organizations like Doctors Without Borders were unable to provide sufficient shelter, food, or medical care.

The deportation campaigns from Algeria began in 2014 – at that time, sporadic and not on a large scale. They have been taking place regularly since 2017. After Algeria deported a total of 27,208 people to Niger in 2021, the number rose to 36,083 the following year, reports Doctors Without Borders.

The implementation of the mass expulsions is now also known: Algerian authorities organize them in so-called "official" and "unofficial" convoys. In the former, trucks loaded exclusively with Nigerien citizens cross the border and take them to Assamaka, about 15 kilometers away. In the "unofficial" measures, people of other origins are abandoned in the desert at the border and forced to walk to Assamaka.

Algeria's government justifies the mass deportations, among other things, by referring to a bilateral agreement with its southern neighbor from 2014. However, the deal with Niger only includes agreements on the deportation of its own citizens and thus the "unofficial" convoys.

The government in Niamey had repeatedly protested this practice since 2017 and even summoned the Algerian ambassador in 2024 – but to no avail. This is one of the reasons why Nigerien border authorities are increasingly relying on pushbacks. "People who do not come from African countries are now systematically being sent back to Algeria by Nigerien authorities. This affects people from Bangladesh or Yemen, for example," Azizou Chehou of Alarmphone Sahara explains to "nd". The fact that the television station RTN in Niger, ruled by a military junta since 2023, has now prominently addressed the issue and allowed deportees to report on their experiences of violence in Algeria, also indicates that the government in Niamey may be slowly losing patience with its northern neighbor.

The latest wave of deportations was preceded by a campaign of arrests against refugees living in Algeria. Police raids took place both in the north of the country and in cities in southern Algeria. "It's really intense right now. Police have destroyed countless of our shelters and taken away all the migrants they found," a man from Cameroon told the "nd" newspaper shortly after narrowly escaping a raid in Oran, western Algeria.

Authorities in Algeria's neighboring countries have also been taking increasingly tough action against refugees since last year. Since the beginning of April, the Tunisian National Guard has been forcibly expelling refugees living in self-built tent villages north of the city of Sfax. Their improvised shelters, along with other infrastructure, have been set on fire or destroyed, and apprehended residents have been chased away or arrested. Large waves of arrests of refugees were also reported from Libya in April. While militias there often deport the arrested refugees directly to Niger, Tunisian authorities repeatedly ship them back to Algeria. The Algerian border police, in turn, often deport the people directly to Niger in so-called chain deportations.