Algerian authorities have intensified the expulsion of Sub-Saharan African migrants,often abandoning them in harsh conditions on the borders with Niger,against the backdrop of diplomatic tension with its southern Sahel neighbors.
Niger officials have often denounced Algeria’s harsh treatment of thousands of migrants,which has worsened after Niger joined the alliance of Sahel states which also includes Mali and Burkina Faso.
The three Sahel states accused Algeria of backing terrorism in the region,after it downed a Malian drone that was tracking a terrorist group in northern Mali.
Niger is now struggling to repatriate 4000 African migrants expelled by Algiers,Jeune Afrique reported.
These expulsions have “disrupted Niger’s security,” Niger’s interior minister Mohamed Toumba said.
In 2024,Algeria expelled 31,000 individuals mostly from West Africa,leaving Niger struggling with their repatriation,according to NGO Alarm Phone Sahara.
Amid worsening tensions with Sahel states,a surge in racist and xenophobic acts was reported in Algerian social media,condoned by authorities.
Algeria’s state behavior regarding African migrants is rooted in a false sense of superiority and arrogance towards the rest of Africa.
State-condoned racism
Racism against African resurges in events including ironically sports which is supposed to bring people together.
“Sorry Africa,our stadiums are better off without your odors,” this was the reaction of the Algerian regime’s media after their country lost its bid to host the 2025 African Cup of Nations.
Even the officials or bodies in charge of human rights openly express racist stances. In 2016,head of Algeria’s human rights commission Farouk Ksentini bluntly accused sub-Saharans of spreading HIV in Algeria,a public statement that bears the hallmarks of racism in its abhorrent forms.
“We Algerians are exposed to the risk of HIV contamination and other sexually transmitted diseases because of these migrants,” he shamefully said.
In 2018,the country that was seeking to host continental event took a segregationist move to ban migrants from using taxis and buses in a wave of anti-migrant drive launched by the Algerian authorities in blatant disregard for human dignity and in total violation of basic human rights.
Then Algerian PM,Ahmed Ouyahya,surfed on the tide of anti-migrant populism uttering heinous remarks when he described Sub-Saharan migrants as a “source of crime,drugs and other calamities.”
Persisting on the same xenophobic remarks,then Foreign Minister Abdelkader Messahel accused Sub-Saharan migrants of “involvement in crime and drug trafficking.”
Following the example of his predecessor,President Tebboune has no visit in his presidential record to any African country!
With an endemic racism espoused by state officials and discrimination against Sub-Saharans,Algeria will further distance itself from its Sahel neighborhood where it is gradually being ejected.
United News - unews.co.za