Death on the Border: Niger Deaths Add to Growing Toll of Migrant Fatalities within Africa
The International Organization for Migration reports that the shocking discovery this week of the remains of 34 migrants near the Algeria-Niger border which brings to 471 the number of deaths and disappearances recorded on the African continent this year by IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.
“At least 250 migrants have died in Libya and Sudan alone, many due to exposure, starvation or dehydration in the Sahara Desert,” explained Julia Black, a researcher with IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC) in Berlin. She added: “There is also an alarming trend of violent deaths for migrants in North Africa, with dozens of cases of physical and sexual abuse of migrants directly leading to their death. It is likely that many more cases go unrecorded.”
The 34 victims this week were reported to have died in Niger, after being abandoned by their smuggler. These are the only deaths recorded by IOM in Niger, where IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) operations estimate the passage this year of at least 120,000 migrants since January. Temperatures along migration routes through the Sahara frequently reach well above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), and this most recent incident indicates that smuggling practices can be extremely deadly for migrants. The dangers of the heavily used route through the Sahara indicate that these deaths may be only a fraction of the true number of migrant fatalities across North Africa.
In addition to this week’s tragedy, the Missing Migrants Project estimates 85 of the 342 deaths in North Africa this year were of migrants headed to Spain’s Canarias archipelago off the coast of Morocco. It is likely that many go missing and are unreported on this oversea route, as well, “as it is a very long distance to travel to a very small group of islands,” Black explained.
KJ