UNHCR Niger
Month
Niger is cracking down on smugglers, although those caught up in transporting people across the Sahara need real economic alternatives.
By Michelle Hoffman | 09 August 2017 |
Agadez resident Bashir transported people to Libya for 17 years. Since 2015, when this activity became illegal, he has been struggling to find alternatives sources of income to feed his family. © UNHCR/Louise Donovan
AGADEZ, Niger – Bashir grew up in this maze-like outpost perched on the edge of the Sahara, and his knowledge of city and desert made him a successful human smuggler taking people over the searing border to Libya for years.
“People seek me out,” he says. “I’m the guarantor of their safety because they’ve come to me.”
Before 2012, when strongman Muammar Gaddafi still ruled Libya, he said his clients were focused mainly on going to Niger’s northern neighbour to work – not travelling onward.
“Libya was just fine. People could make even more money in Libya than in Italy,” Bashir said, recalling that many of his customers would phone him a few years later, once they had saved enough earnings, to arrange the return journey home.
Now, it is widespread insecurity in Libya that has increased the risks for his clients – and triggered a clampdown on the business that earned him a living for 17 years.
In 2015, largely in response to pressure from EU governments, Niger passed a law cracking down on operators helping those travellers, mainly from West and Central Africa, cross into Libya.
In return, the EU has offered more than €2 billion in aid to help the region – also including other priority African countries – on issues ranging from security to economic development.
Faced with the new law, which punishes people who facilitate the illegal crossing into Libya, Bashir traded in his illicit occupation last October for a new life. Now he helps smugglers like himself to prepare for a career change.
He and colleagues have helped hundreds of them to put together proposals seeking promised EU funds which are earmarked for financing business ventures and skills training for those in the smuggling trade. The initiative funds projects of up to US$2,700 for individuals, or US$7,200 for up to four individuals working as a group.
“We’re a bit hopeful because the Niger government came to us. They brought us in, and have discussed this directly with us. We’ve told them all our problems,” he said.
For centuries a hub in an international trade in gold and salt, and later a site for desert tourism, Agadez has more recently become a centre for smuggling and trafficking in guns, drugs and – above all – desperate refugees and migrants.
But the crackdown on human smuggling comes at a cost for the whole country, which ranks 187th out of 188 spots on the UNDP Human Development Index. With a vast swathe of territory to control and a desperately poor population, it has a difficult job both playing gatekeeper and finding an economic alternative for a boom industry.
“We’ve lost our work. We’ve lost our lives – because this was our life. This is what put bread on the table.”
Bashir warns that smugglers need a real solution to abandon the economy that has provided them with a lifeline. “We don’t know how to do anything else,” he said. “Can’t you see? We’ve lost our work. We’ve lost our lives – because this was our life. This is what put bread on the table.”
In Niger, where 46 per cent of people survive on less than US$2 a day, a driver who transports people to Libya can make US$4,000, even US$5,000 per trip. But now, to stay on the side of the law, many who have lived off the economy are being forced to find new ways to survive.
But not everyone. Though it has been forced underground by the law, signs of the smuggling business are easy to see in Agadez. The city bustles on days before convoys of trucks head into the desert as smugglers stock up on fuel and provisions. Money changers, wire transfer services, mobile phone dealers – selling satellite phones for coverage in the remote desert – dot city streets.
Young men hang out at the bus station in Agadez, hoping to connect with migrants as they arrive. Human smuggling is a key economic activity in the city in Niger, despite a government crackdown in 2015. © UNHCR/Louise Donovan
The bus station in town teems with passengers arriving in the evening with scheduled appointments with their smuggler agents. And, in Agadez’s more dangerous quarters, behind the low mud walls of some well-guarded compounds, the migrants and refugees wait for their time to travel – sometimes trapped inside under lock and key for days.
Aklou Sidi Sidi, the first vice president of Agadez’s regional council, said that during boom times up to 700 vehicles, with up to 30 people packed into each, would ride into the desert each week, generating revenues for the main transport agent, the driver – and others.
“But I haven’t even mentioned the owners of the hidden compounds, I haven’t mentioned the motorcycle taxis, or the people who exchange currency, or the money wire transfer services,” he added.
“There are those who sell kits for the migrants. All of these people live by this activity. And today this activity has stopped because it has become illegal. So there absolutely must be a replacement solution.”
Sidi Sidi acknowledges the international assistance, but says it falls short. He claims EU aid offered for job retraining and kick-start businesses can cover only about 200 people while, he says, more than 6,000 people are involved in the human smuggling trade in the city.
By Mariko Hall | August 2017
DIFFA, Niger: Remote, dusty, dangerous – the border region of Diffa hosts over 106,000 Nigerian refugees and more than 127,000 internally displaced people forced to flee Boko Haram’s terror. Located a two-day drive from the capital Niamey, humanitarian organisations in Diffa face seemingly insurmountable challenges, from insecurity and remoteness to lack of funding. At least now, lack of connectivity is no longer on this list of challenges.
In an area where internet is sometimes frustratingly slow, but most often completely non-existent, the UNHCR-led Refugee Emergency Telecommunications Sector (RETS) has deployed the Government of Luxembourg’s ‘emergency.lu’ solution, providing reliable connectivity to implementing partners Action Pour Le Bien Etre (APBE), Karkara, and Secours Des Oubliés (SDO).
“Connectivity allows us to better design and implement programmes that will help improve protection and assistance of individuals,” says Abdouraouf Gnon-Konde, Deputy Representative, UNHCR Niger. “Internet improves the way UNHCR and partners work together for people of concern.”
The population of Diffa has almost doubled since 2015, as people flee violence, forced recruitment and suicide bombings. In an area that already suffers from chronic poverty, harsh climate, recurrent epidemics, poor infrastructure and limited access to basic services, the influx continues to stretch already scarce resources.
Sayam Forage Refugee Camp, Diffa where the population has almost doubled as a result of ongoing violence.
Photo: UNHCR/ Fardy Mandy
Emergency Telecommunications for Refugee Response
Within the framework of the Refugee Coordination Model, RETS provides vital internet connectivity and security communications services to UNHCR, its partners and the extended humanitarian community in emergencies. The emergency.lu deployment in Diffa is the first of such where services are being provided for partners, through partners.
“As ICT, it’s our role to ensure people responding to the needs of refugees have the technology tools available to efficiently, effectively and safely carry out their work,” says Doug Greene, Chief Information Officer and Director of Division of Information Systems and Telecommunications (DIST), UNHCR. “Across Africa alone, UNHCR is responding to the needs of over four and a half million refugees and in each and every one of these situations, communications technology is critical. The emergency.lu deployment in Diffa is the first where we have been able to quite literally link partners who support us with services, and partners who support the lives of displaced people and refugees.”
Mounting the emergency.lu satellite terminal in the UNHCR office, Diffa. Photo: UNHCR/ Fardy Mandy
Connecting Sites, Bridging Gaps
The emergency.lu solution has been installed in UNHCR’s Diffa office, and wirelessly linked to the offices of partners to provide connectivity to these sites, including Sayam Forage refugee camp.
“The most challenging part was the link to Sayam Forage,” says Fardy Mandy, West Africa Senior Regional ICT Officer, UNHCR. “The straight line distance is 36km, so we needed long-distance microwave antennas which look like two giant balls. We had one of us at the office, and another at Sayam Forage, carefully pointing the balls to each other to establish the connection.”
“Connectivity is a medium to bridge the gap,” says Abdouraouf. “We have a detailed learning programme in Diffa to help kids who came from Nigeria maintain access to the Nigerian curriculum.”
At the end of the 2017 academic year, groups of junior and senior secondary school refugee students temporarily returned to Nigeria to complete their exams. In partnership with Italian non-governmental organisation COOPI, UNHCR is finalising an action plan for Nigeria National Examination Council accreditation of two distance examination centres in Diffa.
“Now we have internet, all these things will improve,” says Abdouraouf. “We can use the internet to support better education for children in the camp.”
A lighter moment with children who watched the equipment being installed in Sayam Forage Camp. Photo: UNHCR
Supporting Safety & Security
Communications technology enables better and faster humanitarian assistance and protection, as well as supports safety and security in the world’s most challenging and remote environments.
Diffa has suffered a number of Boko Haram attacks in recent years. In June two female suicide bombers entered the internally displaced people camp of Kablewa and detonated the bombs they were carrying, killing themselves, as well as two others, and injuring 11 more.
“The same internet link we connected also supports security communications,” says Fardy. “Through the internet we can connect the two-way VHF radio so that someone in Sayam Forage can speak to someone Diffa.”
RETS connectivity services in Diffa are being used by 30 partner staff. Equipment and services are being provided at no-cost to UNHCR, for use by its partners, by the Government of Luxembourg for an initial period of 6 months.
The next step for the project is to extend connectivity services to the new office being built for UNHCR’s Government of Niger counterparts.
“The way that protection was before, registration was before, security access was before, education was before, partners working together with UNHCR and refugees themselves – all of this has changed,” says Abdouraouf. “Connectivity changes the way we communicate and operate.”
Guichet unique de Niamey, Boubacar Siddo /UNHCR
Situé à la croisée des routes migratoires vers l’Europe, le Niger constitue un passage incontournable pour des milliers de migrants. La ville d’Agadez en particulier, est le carrefour d’où partent les deux principales routes migratoires en direction de l’Algérie et de la Libye.
En 2016, environ 300 000 personnes auraient transité par ces routes (source OIM). Parmi ces migrants certains sont des réfugiés, c’est-à-dire des personnes ayant fui leur pays d’origine en raison de craintes de persécution, ou bien ne pouvant y retourner du fait de l’existence d’une situation de violence généralisée (guerre, rébellion).
L’UNHCR a signé un Mémorandum d’entente (MoU- Memorandum of Understanding) tripartite avec l’OIM et le gouvernement du Niger, visant à instaurer un mécanisme de référencement des demandeurs d’asile vers les procédures nationales nigériennes. Le fonctionnement de ce dispositif a rapidement révélé le besoin d’avoir un moyen de communication permettant à toute personne d’obtenir, via le téléphone, des informations sur les procédures d’asile au Niger.
Dans cette perspective, L’UNHCR a mis en place une ligne verte opérant depuis le Guichet Unique à Niamey. Cette ligne est joignable au numéro gratuit : 0 800 12 12.
Le numéro vert est accessible à travers les trois opérateurs de téléphonie mobile au Niger : Moov, Orange et Airtel.
Le numéro vert est accessible tous les jours ouvrables de la semaine, aux horaires suivants :
Du Lundi au Jeudi de 8 Heures à 13 Heures et de 14 Heures à 17 Heures 30
Le Vendredi de 8 Heures à 14 Heures.
L’appel est gratuit et confidentiel. Vous serez mis en relation avec un conseiller du HCR qui répondra à vos questions.
Objectifs : la ligne verte est un service d’information destine à fournir des renseignements sur :
- les procédures d’asile au Niger
- Mais également les services offerts aux réfugiés, au niveau du guichet unique.
Ainsi, grâce à ce numéro vert, les réfugiés et les demandeurs d’asile peuvent obtenir à l’aide de leur téléphone mobile des informations relatives à l’état d’avancement de leur demande, les assistances offertes aux bénéficiaires ou encore les critères pour bénéficier des assistances etc.
Perspectives : Il est prévu d’étendre l’accès de la ligne verte aux réfugiés installés dans les camps et la ZAR (zone d’accueil de réfugiés), ainsi que de mettre en place un système de réception de plaintes en ligne auprès du Mécanisme de Gestion des Plaintes (MGP).
Rabi Silkame et ses trois enfants a Abala, Niger. Ils ont fuit leur village au nord du Mali a cause du conflit, en aout 2017 (Photo : Aboubacar Maman Gambo)
Depuis le 1er août ils sont plus de 1,500 réfugiés Maliens ayant fui les récents évènements de Kidal et de Ménaka en direction du Niger où ils se sont installés au camp des réfugiés d’Abala, dans la région de Tillabéry. Les femmes et les enfants sont les plus nombreux dans ce mouvement, et y comptent pour plus de 80 pour cent.
Rabi SILKAME fait partie de ces nombreuses femmes chef de ménages ayant en charge des mineurs arrivés sur le territoire. Habillée en tunique traditionnelle, le seul habit qu’elle affirme posséder, la fraicheur d’un soulagement se lit dans ses gestes, mais le regard demeure tourné vers un village qu’elle n’a jamais voulu quitter.
Elle a fui un dimanche, Boukkabele (Aderamboukane), son village natal en compagnie de ses trois enfants dont la plus grande est enceinte de 8 huit mois, et n’ayant aucune nouvelle de son mari.
Malgré la crise qui sévit depuis 2012, Rabi n’a jamais voulu quitter son mari, un petit commerçant selon ses propos qui était très aimable et qui subvenait aux besoins de toute la famille. Il y a un mois, celui-ci a été tué par un groupe armé. Veuve, elle a vendu les quelques biens que lui a laissé son défunt mari ainsi que le restant de leur bétail pour nourrir ses enfants.
« Je n’ai jamais voulu quitter mon pays », disait-elle. « J’étais dans cette situation de désarroi et ne sachant quoi faire quand j’ai décidé de fuir notre village suite à l’arrivée de la CMA. On entendait au loin des tirs. J’ai pris mes enfants. Je n’ai même pas eu le temps de prendre les vêtements, les casseroles…et j’ai suivi un groupe, d’abord en véhicule puis à pied, jusqu’au Niger ».
Elle est arrivée il y a deux jours parmi environ 400 autres ménages du Mali. « Je ne sens plus des tirs la nuit, ni inquiète pour mes enfants en sentant les pas des gens rodant autour de notre case. Je veux juste dormir les nuits. J’ai déjà la nostalgie de mon pays …»
Tout comme Rabi, chacun des refugies accueillis a une histoire derrière lui et chacun espère un jour retourner au pays natal. Pour l’instant, la vie continue et chacun d’eux essaie tant bien que mal d’oublier le démon de la nuit et l’insomnie qu’il traine derrière lui.
Les nouveaux arrivés viennent de s’ajouter au plus de 55,000 réfugiés Maliens déjà présents sur le territoire Nigérien. Même au Niger, la situation sécuritaire s'est détériorée depuis quelques mois. En mars, l’Etat a décrété l’« Etat d’Urgence » dans quelques départements dans les régions de Tillabéry et Tahoua.
Pour les nouveaux arrives, l’Etat du Niger, le HCR, le PAM ainsi que tous les autres partenaires sont à pied d’œuvre pour répondre aux besoins élémentaires de ces ménages y compris l’enregistrement, les abris, la nourriture, etc.
Nearly 30 per cent of those who risk all to cross the desert to Libya could qualify for international protection status once they reach Europe.
By Michelle Hoffman | 04 August 2017 | Français
Cameroonian migrant Daniel pictured in Agadez, Niger. He left his homeland with his uncle and brother, but was detained and tortured in Libya. © UNHCR/Louise Donovan
AGADEZ, Niger – Daniel knows well the dangers of the route to Libya. As he recalls his journey from his native Cameroon, the details spill out in a staccato of words, fidgets and sideways glances, an occasional smile dashing across his face. It is not excitement, but despair, that drives the constant movement.
He is a man used to being on the move. The 26-year-old left his homeland earlier this year with his twin brother and uncle, aiming to reach Libya, then Europe. But for the trio, as for untold thousands of others, the trip went badly wrong as they fell into the hands of ruthless smugglers.
“When we reached Libya, the driver told us we had to pay another 1,500 dinars (US$1,100) per person, so 4,500 dinars for all three,” he says. “We didn’t have any more money. We tried to explain the situation, but they didn’t want to hear it.”
So for lack of pay-off money, the three were thrown into one of Libya’s informal detention centres, Daniel says, and beaten with weapons.
“We were tortured, kept in a compound where other passengers were allowed to go out, but not us since they thought we might escape,” he explains.
He was then taken back here, to neighbouring Niger, where he was bound into forced labour by his Libyan captors, while his family remained hostage across the border. When they finally released him, two months later, he had no money, nowhere to call home, and a ransom demand to pay.
Daniel’s harrowing journey took him along a centuries-old caravan trail to the Mediterranean, and left him at one of its crossroads – Agadez.
Once a hub in the trade in gold and salt, the low-slung labyrinth of ochre-walled compounds on the southern edge of the Sahara desert is now a centre in a dangerous trade in guns, drugs and, above all, people. In 2016 some 330,000 people crossed to Libya from Niger, mostly through Agadez, including about a quarter of them from Niger itself.
In 2015, largely in response to pressure from EU governments, Niger began cracking down on operators helping those travellers, mainly from West and Central Africa, cross into Libya. In return, the EU has offered more than €2 billion in aid to help the region – also including other priority African countries – on issues ranging from security to economic development.
While the numbers of people transiting through Agadez has dropped since the crackdown began, some observers say it is simply forcing the business of people smuggling underground, making the illicit trade even riskier.
Smugglers are taking alternative routes that are less well known – and charging higher prices for their services. Those who call themselves “migration service providers” in Agadez also say their business of transporting people is now attracting more criminal traffickers who also transport drugs and weapons.
“Irrespective of the status … we are telling people it is dangerous to go to Libya.”
Groups of migrants have been abandoned in the desert – some deliberately, others when a smuggler’s vehicle breaks down. Sometimes they are rescued but unknown numbers have died – and some estimate the figures of those who have perished en route in the deserts of Niger and in Libya are higher than the figures of those lost at sea heading to Europe.
Across the border in Libya, a whole host of other threats await. The country, in the throes of civil and political upheaval, has simply become a “machine that destroys humans,” said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR’s Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean Situation, during a visit to Niger last week.
“Irrespective of the status of people – whether they are economic migrants or refugees – we are telling people it is dangerous to go to Libya. People disappear. People are killed in the desert, much more than the people being killed in the Mediterranean trying to cross to go to Europe,” he said.
Most of those who risk this desperate journey have been considered migrants, but analysis by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, shows that about 30 per cent of those who take migration routes through Niger could qualify for international protection status once they reach Europe. Thus, tens of thousands of people traumatized by war, political persecution and terrorism go headlong into more danger.
A view over Agadez, Niger. © UNHCR/Louise Donovan
“It’s something I’ve learned during this trip to Agadez, from testimonies we’ve heard from people,” said Cochetel. “Everybody has seen people dying in front of them in detention centres … either in the hands of militias, or smugglers and traffickers. Everyone has had that experience … So we’re telling people it’s for your own protection. It’s dangerous to be there. There are solutions on the way.”
UNHCR has stepped up its operations in Niger, both to identify and protect vulnerable people of concern, and to help the Niger government to improve its capacity for determining asylum claims. It is also working closely with its partner, the International Organization for Migration, to reach out to people who may have fled war or persecution, to let them know that asylum is possible in Niger.
“I know that I’ve done my part as a Christian – warning them about what happens out there.”
As part of a wider drive to tackle the root causes of displacement, the UN Refugee Agency continues to offer its support to governments to seek lasting political solutions to the conflicts that provoke humanitarian crises in the region and worldwide.
After two months Daniel was released by his captors onto the streets of Agadez. There he has found some solace in the city’s tiny Catholic parish and its priest, Father Pascal, who ministers to many migrants and refugees. Daniel has found the courage to voice his story and deliver a message to those who will listen.
“I’ve met other people here who want to go to Libya,” he said. “I told them about what I’ve gone through. I don’t know if they’ve gone anyway or not. That’s up to them. But I know that I’ve done my part as a Christian – warning them about what happens out there.”
For more information go to : http://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2017/8/598427614/deadly-trade-niger-snares-refugees-migrants.html
DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Fear of Boko Haram attacks has driven at least 7,000 people from Niger to seek refuge in Chad in the last week, and thousands more may cross the border if the violence escalates, the United Nations said on Monday.
The recent arrivals in Chad’s Lake region felt compelled to leave Niger after attacks by Islamist Boko Haram militants on their village and neighboring communities in the southeastern Diffa region, according to the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR).
Diffa has seen intense fighting over the past year between Niger’s army and Boko Haram militants. The region hosts almost a quarter-of-a-million uprooted people, from Niger and Nigeria, who have been forced to flee their homes by the violence.
“The new arrivals fled into Chad because they were scared of Boko Haram attacks … after a few took place recently,” UNHCR official Edward O'Dwyer told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“They also said they felt exposed after Chad scaled back the number of troops in Niger due to a lack of resources,” he added.
Those who crossed the border into Chad said at least 10,000 more people could follow suit imminently due to fears over their safety in southern Niger, according to the U.N. agency.
Suspected Boko Haram fighters killed nine people and abducted dozens more in southern Niger last month, while female bombers killed two and wounded 11 at a U.N.-managed camp for the displaced in the first suicide attack in the region in a year.
This violence has stoked fears about Niger’s inability to stop Boko Haram crossing the desert border from their bases in Nigeria, with the frequency of the militants’ attacks having ramped up recently as their eight-year insurgency rages on.
Their bid to carve out an Islamic caliphate in the Lake Chad region has killed 20,000 people and forced at least 2.7 million to flee their homes across Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria.
“We are concerned that if the security situation deteriorates in Niger, more and more people will flee to Chad,” said O'Dwyer, adding that the UNHCR had a contingency plan prepared to provide aid in case of a spike in arrivals.
The U.N. agency said it had delivered items such as plastic tarpaulin and blankets to those uprooted from Niger, who have set up an informal camp near a site hosting Nigerian refugees.
Chad’s Lake region is home to at least 100,000 Chadians uprooted by violence, and 8,000 Nigerian refugees, says the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
Reporting By Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org