Inside Africa: Thousands Of Deported Migrants Stranded In The Sahara Desert
Mehdi Chebil
One small 2-litre canister per person, one scoop of garri (a flour made of cassava root), sardines, biscuits, paracetamol, quinine, products against diarrhoea, sweaters, gloves, and a scarf to protect against dust and sand. A piece of white cloth is also recommended, to be seen in case of distress. These are the essential luggage items recommended to migrants upon arrival in Agadez, a town in northern Niger also known as “la Porte du desert” (the gateway to the desert).
“We hope that this information will save your life, but already know that despite everything, your journey will be hard and dangerous!” warns Alarm Phone Sahara (APS), a humanitarian association operating across the Sahel-Sahara region. Among the risks they signal to migrants who wish to cross the Sahara, they list theft, mistreatment, kidnapping, torture, and abandonment in the desert. Murder is also among them.
And yet, hundreds still arrive every month in northern Niger hoping to be taken across the desert to Lybia or Algeria, from where they hope to reach the shores of Europe. After having paid some 300,000 CFA Francs (roughly €450) to a smuggler, they are gathered and hidden away in ‘ghettos’ in the Pays-Bas neighbourhood, a part of Agadez filled with unlicensed pickups which will soon be pushing into the desert with a few dozen men, women, and even children in the back bed.
For those heading to Lybia, a weeklong rough road journey awaits them just to reach the border, in the middle of the desert (roughly halfway to Tripoli). Those heading to Algeria only have a two-day journey to reach the border, though it also takes them through one of the most uninhabitable places on the planet.
(This video was made in 2016)
The crossing of the Sahara used to take half that time, but in more recent years, increased repression and patrolling in Lybia and Algeria has forced smugglers to use more remote and dangerous routes. The EU has been trying to suffocate trans-Mediterranean migration for years through financing to countries across the Maghreb, reinforcing police patrols, arrests of illegal immigrants, and deportations.
Niger, which has always been known to funnel sub-Saharan migrants to the Mediterranean coast, had a partnership for strategic cooperation with the EU designed to curb migration flows. They mobilised €1 billion for the cause under the EU’s Trust Fund for Africa programme. In 2015, Niger had passed a law which criminalised the smuggling of migrants, after a vehicle broke down leaving 92 people dead, stranded in the desert.
But after a coup d’état in July 2023, which like other regime changes across the coup belt sought to distance itself from ties with the West, the EU suspended its cooperation deal with the country. In November 2023, Niger’s new government abrogated the 2015 Anti-Smuggling law, decriminalising the traffic of migrants.
It was a move which meant to revamp what once was a prosperous economic activity in the area surrounding Agadez, as well as villages along the migration routes dotted across the desert. At least to some, the hope was that it would legitimise the migrant smuggling business. Critics claimed that after it was criminalised, the trafficking of migrants was taken over by bandits and gangs which also ran guns and drugs across the desert, leading to more dangerous circumstances for migrants and locals.
Trans-Saharan Migrant Routes / Google Earth
But since the law was abrogated, matters have only gotten worse. In the past year, mass graves containing the bodies of migrants were found in multiple locations across the desert. In March 2024, 65 were found in a mass grave in southwestern Libya. On the 10th of February 2025, 19 more bodies were discovered in Jakharrah, and at least 30 bodies (though estimates reach as high as 70) were uncovered in Alkufra, while the Libyan police was rescuing hundreds during a raid on traffickers.
Because Niger no longer restricts the smuggling of migrants, illegal immigration to Algeria and Lybia has increased especially in the past year. To combat the already overwhelming numbers that accumulate in cities like Tripoli, Tunis or Algiers, governments of the Maghreb have been conducting mass deportations of migrants back to Niger, many of whom are not even from Niger originally.
Recorded Deportees from Algeria to Niger between August and December 2024
In 2024, at least 31,000 migrants were deported from Algeria, a record high number. Between mid-august and the end of 2024, APS claims that at least 11,606 people were deported from Algeria to Niger, about 1,000 of which were also underage. Of those whose nationality was registered, a large proportion are originally from Niger (about a third), though roughly 25% are from Guinea, and about 16% are from Mali. Other countries include Nigeria, Sudan, and Cameroon.
Migrants Deported from Algeria to Niger between August and December 2024
Important to note is that among these deportations, there is a discrepancy between official convoys and so-called “unofficial convoys”. While in the former, deportees are transported to desert towns such as Assamaka or Dirkou by Lybian authorities, and sometimes escorted by Nigerien military, the latter simply drop migrants off at the border with Niger.
This is especially common with Algerian deportations, where deportees are simply abandoned at what is known as ‘point zero’, a border in the desert between the two countries some 10-15km from the nearest town Assamaka. The migrants have no choice but to walk the final stretch of the journey across the desert themselves, often already weakened by rough treatment while detained.
Niger Algerian Border near Assamaka / Google earth
Even as they reach Assamaka, a small town in the middle of the desert 450 km from Agadez, many are stranded, unable to travel back home or continue their migration because their funds have been exacerbated, or else taken by Algerian or Libyan police alongside their phones. The result is a pileup of migrants left stranded in the desert with nowhere to go.
Though the International Organization for Migration runs reception centres in Assamaka, as well as Arlit, Dirkou, and Agadez, they have long exhausted their capacities. The centre in Dirkou, which has a capacity of 30 beds, has been completely overflown with migrants since mid-November. Roughly 100 people have been sleeping outside awaiting admission, which is usually prioritised to those who declare themselves in a ‘voluntary return’ condition, so the organization can facilitate their return home.
For those who abandon the dream of Europe, the repatriation process is very slow, and a challenging journey still awaits them. But many cannot afford the luxury of such a choice, as they are part of a persecuted ethnicity, or the victims of war in their home. Their only option is to try again. It’s why APS reminds readers of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 13, in their mission statement: “Everyone has the right to move freely (…), to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”
