Since the 2023 coup, Niger’s migration landscape has changed dramatically, with new legislation tightening entry, stay, and movement, criminalising irregular migration, and granting broad powers to enforcement officers. In a joint submission to the UPR, the GDP, JMED Niger, and REMIDDH raise concerns over arbitrary and harmful detention, poor conditions, and abuse of migrants, urging Niger to amend its policies to ensure detention is used only as a last resort and in line with international human rights standards. […]
Algeria
Algeria: Detention and Deportation in an “Informal Corridor of Expulsion”
In recent years, Algeria has ramped up its detention and deportation operations in response to mounting pressure from Europe. Working increasingly with both neighbouring and European countries, Algerian authorities have conducted targeted raids, used an extensive network of formal and informal detention sites, and carried out (often violent) crossborder pushbacks to Niger and elsewhere. […]
Algeria: Covid-19 and Detention
As increasing numbers of Algerians seek to flee their country and make the hazardous passage across the Mediterranean to Spain, concerns are growing about the plight of migrants and refugees located in Algeria’s land borders, particularly those shared with Morocco and Niger, which have been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and political tensions across […]
Algeria Immigration Detention Data Profile (2020)
Algeria Detention Data (2020) The latest detention-related data from Algeria, including immigration and detention-related statistics, domestic laws and policies, international law, and institutional indicators. View the Algeria Detention Data Profile Related Reading: Algeria: Country Page Report: Immigration Detention in Algeria, Pandemic Pushbacks Joint Submission to the UN Committee on Migrant Workers: Algeria Algeria: COVID-19 Updates […]
Algeria: Covid-19 and Detention
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), between early September and early October Algerian authorities expelled more than 3,400 people from at least 20 countries, including 430 children and 240 women, all of whom were sent to Niger. The expulsions followed waves of arrests in no fewer than nine cities, during which children were reportedly separated […]
Immigration Detention in Algeria: Pandemic Pushbacks
Reports from international organisations and other observers indicate that Algeria has, during the past decade, employed increasingly punitive methods to limit the entry and stay of refugees, asylum seekers, and undocumented migrants. Sometimes under threat of violence, tens of thousands of people—including women and children—have been forcibly deported in desert areas bordering Mali and Niger. […]
Algeria: Covid-19 and Detention
Responding to the Global Detention Project’s Covid-19 survey, a non-governmental actor in Algeria reported that expulsions of undocumented people have been halted since 21 March 2020, though information from news sources appears to contradict this claim. The source, who asked to remain anonymous but whose identity was verified by the GDP, said that they did […]
Algeria: Covid-19 and Detention
In correspondence with the Global Detention Project (GDP), UNHCR Algeria reports that the Algerian Government “suspended collective expulsions of migrants in irregular situations in Algeria in mid-March due to the Covid-19 crisis. However, it is reported that groups of nationals from Niger continued to be removed to Niger in March and April, although in smaller […]
Algeria: Covid-19 and Detention
With the Covid-19 crisis provoking a state of “panic” across Algeria, the country has announced a “plan d’urgence.” Authorities have continued their efforts to block unauthorized migration from sub-Saharan countries, including detaining “migrants clandestine” and arresting alleged traffickers. However, simultaneously, the Ministry of Justice announced that it was temporarily suspending court functions. In addition, all […]
Immigration Detention in Niger: Expanding the EU-Financed Zone of Suffering Through “Penal Humanitarianism”?
Immigration Detention in Niger (2019 Report): Niger has been a principal migration hub for people criss-crossing the Sahel region of Africa for generations. It has also served as an important transit country for migrants and asylum seekers on the Central Mediterranean route through Libya to Europe. More recently, the country has begun receiving third-country nationals who […]
