CARE Affair #11 - Power

Sahara. The caravans always passed
through the city. Because flights are
expensive, Africans prefer to travel
by bus. Interregional bus routes
are popping up all over the continent,
particularly in the economic
union ECOWAS, where freedom
of movement exists – as it does in
the Schengen Area in Europe.
The EU, on the other hand,
would like to see more controls in
the region. A civil servant from
Frontex, the EU border protection
agency, was sent to Niger. With the
aid of high-resolution satellite
images, Frontex follows tire marks
in the desert sand on screens in
their headquarters in Warsaw. From
Agadez, the trucks, buses and
pick-ups packed with goods and
migrants have to drive thousands of
miles through the desert to reach
the Libyan border. They stop to fill
up water bottles at watering places
on the way.
The EU promised Niger over
600 million euros last year if it
stops migrants and arrests the
people smugglers. Germany supplied
the Nigerien army with
vehicles and radar equipment. With
the aid of French soldiers, Niger’s
army positions its units deliberately
at the watering places along the
desert route from Agadez to Libya.
The French teach their Nigerien
comrades arrest techniques. As
early as 2015, the government
passed a law that provides for
prison terms of up to 30 years and
fines of up to 45,000 euros for
“trafficking in people”.
Since then the Nigerien
army hunts vehicles carrying migrants
through the desert. It posting
soldiers at the watering places leads
to more and more drivers making
long detours to avoid arrest. The result:
increasing numbers of migrants
and refugees die of thirst during
the long, difficult journey through
the Sahara. In early June 2017 the
Red Cross in Niger reported that
a truck had broken down in the
Sahara. Only six people managed
to walk to the next water source.
Two of the survivors led rescuers
to the accident location where
they found 44 bodies, including 17
women and six children. Further
east on the same day, the Nigerien
army rescued 40 people who had
been abandoned in the Sahara by
people smugglers. Only a few weeks
earlier, eight migrants, including five
children, died of thirst in the Nigerien
desert on the way to Algeria.
The European Commission
congratulated Niger on December
15, 2016 on the fact that fewer
migrants were coming to Europe.
Smugglers were arrested and tried,
95 vehicles used for transporting
migrants impounded and nine
policemen suspected of corruption
were arrested. Niger is providing
a great service as doorkeeper
to the EU. In contrast, Albert
Chaibou, Nigerien journalist and
founder of an emergency hotline
for migrants, laments the fact
that, “Our country has become a
graveyard in Europe’s service”.
The EU aims to introduce
similar migration agreements with
over 20 African states located
between the Mediterranean and the
equator, even with regimes such as
those of Sudan and Eritrea that the
EU has long refused to deal with. An
Gründergeist in Somaliland
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