Niger’s military government – which seized power in July last year – announced on Monday night that it would repeal a 2015 law that had curbed the illegal transport of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe by criminalising smugglers.
The law had led to a “significant reduction in irregular arrivals” in the EU, according to Johansson, who said on Tuesday she was “very concerned” by the junta’s decision to repeal the law.
“I very much regret this decision and am very concerned about the consequences,” she said.
“There’s a huge risk that this will lead to more deaths in the desert, and that’s the most worrying thing. But it will probably also mean more people coming to Libya, for example, and then perhaps trying to cross the Mediterranean to the EU,” she added.
Millions of displaced people, porous borders and organised crime groups make Niger and the wider Sahel a convenient corridor for migrant smugglers between sub-Saharan Africa and the Maghreb.
From countries such as Libya and Algeria, many migrants make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to southern Europe.
Niger had become a key EU partner in the region, with Niamey set to receive more than €503 million in EU funding between 2021 and 2024 for initiatives including migration management projects. The bloc had also established a working agreement between Niger and Frontex, the EU’s border agency.
A significant part of this funding was used to implement the so-called 2015-36 law against migrant smuggling, which included the seizure and dismantling of smugglers’ infrastructure in northern Niger.
The law also criminalised the practice of transporting non-Nigerien nationals into or out of Niger for financial or material gain, making it punishable by five to ten years’ imprisonment and a fine of between one and five million West African francs (€1,520 to €7,601).
Humanitarian groups had fiercely opposed the law as a manifestation of Europe’s heavy-handed influence on Africa and a blow to communities in northern Niger, particularly in the city of Agadez, where many relied on the migrant trade for their livelihoods.
But since military rebels violently overthrew the democratically elected government of President Mohamed Bazoum in July, the EU has suspended all security cooperation with Niamey and sanctioned the coup leaders.
EU cooperation with Niger on migration management has also stopped, with the exception of a UN programme to evacuate refugees from Libya for resettlement in Tunisia, Johansson said.
“Otherwise, most of our cooperation (with Niger) is not continuing,” she said.
Johansson is spearheading the EU’s major migration reform, the so-called pact on migration and asylum. The European Commission has stepped up cooperation with third countries in recent months to tackle what it calls the “external dimension” of migration, notably through a controversial deal with Tunisia to crack down on people smuggling.
The Commission says the Tunisia deal could serve as a blueprint for similar agreements with countries such as Egypt or Morocco.
But the violent coup in Niger – seen as the last bastion of democracy in the Sahel region, where a number of states have fallen into the hands of military juntas in recent years – was seen as a major blow to EU efforts to tackle irregular migration at its roots.
The bloc is concerned that the military regime’s repeal of the law could lead to a resurgence of human trafficking gangs.
On Tuesday, Johansson also presented proposals for new EU laws to crack down on criminal smuggling networks, including tougher penalties for perpetrators.
“Our message to the smuggling gangs today is clear: we will come after you with the full force of the law to stop you making easy money off suffering people,” she said.