The Niger junta announced on Monday, November 27, 2023, that it had repealed an anti-migration law that had assisted in lowering the number of West Africans traveling to Europe but which was despised by residents of the desert whose economies had long depended on the traffic.
The law, which forbade the transportation of migrants via Niger, was passed in May 2015, at a time when the number of individuals crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Africa was at an all-time high. This led to a humanitarian and political crisis in Europe, with governments facing pressure to halt the inflow.
The law was repealed on Saturday and made public on state television on Monday night by the junta that took over Niger in a coup in July.
Reevaluating its ties with erstwhile allies in the West who denounced the coup, the junta is attempting to bolster support domestically, particularly in the northern desert communities that had reaped the greatest benefits from migration.
The law reduced the flow of migrants through Niger, a major transit nation on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, dramatically over time, but the shift devastated the towns and villages that had provided food and shelter to migrants as well as sold fuel and auto parts to traffickers.
With the intention of eliminating the underlying causes of migration, the European Union established the 5 billion euro Trust Fund for Africa in exchange, but many believed this was insufficient. In locations like Agadez, an ancient city and well-known entry point to the Sahara, unemployment skyrocketed.
We’ll see how the news is received by European leaders and how it affects immigration to Europe.
Nonetheless, some embraced it. Prior to the police seizing his trucks in 2016, Andre Chani was paid thousands of dollars per month to transport migrants across the desert. Upon receiving the funds, he intends to relaunch his company.
Ref: Reuters
