The International Organization for Migration (IOM) last week rescued fifty West African migrants, including women and children, “blocked” in the desert north of Niger, near the border with Libya. “Most (migrants) were returning from Libya. Some were on their way (to this country) but no longer had the means to continue their journey, and they asked for our support to return”explains Aïssatou Sy, Head of Information at the IOM office in Niamey.
This week, 50 vulnerable and distressed migrants left Dirkou, in the northeast of the Agadez region, to reach the city of Agadez via a charter flight organized with @WFP_UNHAS.
Thank you UNHAS for this great collaboration #OneUN pic.twitter.com/N2DOMZBnAd
— IOM Niger (@OIM_Niger) September 10, 2022
The 50 migrants − ten children, three women and thirty-seven men “vulnerable and in distress” − met “blocked” in Dirkou after a perilous migratory journey through the Niger desert, the organization said in a press release. Among them are 49 Nigerian nationals and a Cameroonian who were transported by a UN humanitarian flight to Agadez, the big city in northern Niger where the IOM has a large reception center for migrants.
Dirkou, located in the Agadez region, is an essential crossing point for migrant smuggling and one of the last stops to enter neighboring Libya, generally with the aim of then reaching Europe. Migrant rescue operations are frequent in the hostile Sahara desert, especially towards Libya.
Many West African migrants generally congregate in Agadez where there are smuggling networks. According to city authorities, it is common for vehicles carrying migrants to break down in the desert, or for smugglers to get lost or abandon their passengers for fear of checkpoints or military patrols. Some migrants die of dehydration. At the end of June, ten illegal migrants were found dead, according to the Nigerien army, which had discovered their bodies summarily buried in pits near Dirkou.
In order to discourage smugglers, Niamey had however voted in 2015 a law making the smuggling of migrants a crime, punishable by penalties of up to 30 years in prison. Despite this measure, migrants borrow “new, more dangerous roads” to enter Libya, according to a security source.