2023-12-01 17:32:33
In Niger, the ruling military junta on Monday repealed a law which had criminalized migrant smuggling since 2015. The European Union immediately said it regretted this decision which should increase migratory flows towards Europe, but in Agadez, it is the entire local economy that could benefit from it.
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Since November 26, migrant smugglers are no longer considered criminals in Niger. In Agadez, a large city in northern Niger, this decision was welcomed with joy by residents. “It’s a law that contravened the free movement of people and goods, so it was very well received,” confirms, delighted, Sidi Mamadou, 42, former smuggler and activist for legal immigration. We will recover. at work, if we see migrants, we will transport them.”
The announcement was made Monday, November 27 on television by the military junta, which took power at the end of July after overthrowing President Mohamed Bazoum: “The president of the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Fatherland [CNSP, le régime militaire, NDLR]General Abdourahamane Tiani, signed [samedi] an order repealing” a law of May 26, 2015 “relating to the illicit trafficking of migrants”, indicated the general secretariat of the government.
The statement came as a blow to European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson. To make matters worse, the Swede chaired a meeting the next day in Brussels international conference against migrant smuggling in the presence of European and African interior ministers: “I am very concerned about the current situation, and there is a huge risk that this will cause new deaths in the desert. But I also think that there will probably be more of people who are going to come to Libya and try to cross the Mediterranean to get to the European Union,” she said in a speech.
“For us, immigration is an economy”
A crossing point between the Sahel and the Sahara, Agadez has long been a transit city for migrants from West and Central Africa. Since the collapse of tourist activity due to terrorist groups, an economy of legal migration had developed there. Before 2015, it was easy to find taxi drivers, restaurants, and accommodation specially designed for migrants. As for the convoys of exiles which left Agadez every week for Libya or Algeria, they were escorted by military vehicles to deter possible attacks on the road.
Read alsoReport: former Agadez smugglers faced with the mirage of economic reconversion
“For us, immigration was not a traffic but an economy, we made a lot of money with it,” says Sidi Mamadou. “We took the chassis numbers of the vehicles, the names of the drivers, the number of migrants and we established a road map, even the mayor took a tax on the convoys,” says the Nigerien, who was a member of a union of carriers. Under the ECOWAS agreements, any African Union national can travel to the continent as long as they have an identity document. Between February and June 2016, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has thus counted more than 300,000 people transiting through Niger towards Libya and Algeria, with Europe as their objective.
Ineffective retraining programs
The situation evolved after the migration crisis of 2015 which pushed the European Union to react. From November 2015, following the migration summit in Valletta, Malta, Niger became one of the EU’s main partners in the fight against illegal immigration. In exchange for a law prohibiting migrant smuggling, Brussels undertakes to finance the retraining of some 7,000 “actors of the migratory economy” in the region. The smugglers of Agadez tried to oppose it, by demonstrating in the street with their union, in vain.
At the end of 2015, law 2015-36 came into force and dozens of smugglers were imprisoned or fined between 3 million and 30 million CFA francs (4,500 to 45,000 euros). “One fine morning in 2015, we were told that it was illegal and criminal, and young people began to be arrested with their property,” says Mohamed Anacko, president of the Agadez regional council.
For its part, the EU has financed retraining programs in Niger. In 2017, for example, we find traces of financing of 3.5 million euros from the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) which aims to “mitigate the consequences of the reduction in irregular migration flows on the local economy in the Agadez region (…) with emphasis on job creation.
But in reality, these policies never had the desired effect: “Everyone was able to choose an area of retraining, but eight years later, the program only benefited 300 people,” regrets Mohamed Anacko. Especially since the EU has insisted that no smuggler or transporter can benefit from this retraining aid on the grounds that their previous activities were “criminal”.
“There will surely be convoys starting next week”
Migration activity, for its part, has become clandestine. To avoid the authorities, smugglers began using circuitous routes that were longer, more isolated, and therefore more dangerous. “Migration became risky, because it was no longer controlled and people began to die in the desert, without anyone knowing,” reports the Nigerien elected official. During the first quarter of 2023, several hundred people died or went missing on irregular migration routes that cross Niger, in the desert, according to a report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
With the repeal of the Nigerien law on smugglers, the entire migratory economy of Agadez could be revived. “There will surely be the first convoys as early as next week,” predicts Sidi Mamadou. “We should expect a massive flow of migrants to Europe in the coming months.” For the European Union, this announcement appears as a new setback concerning its policy of externalization of its borders, after Tunisia’s decision to refuse, in October, funds intended to fight against illegal immigration.
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