LONDON – The European Union has expressed fears of a surge in migrants from Africa after the ruling military junta in Niger repealed a law that previously criminalised the transportation of migrants in the country.
The law, known as Law 2015-36, was drafted in 2015 in coordination with the EU and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. At the time, Europe was facing a migrant crisis, with more than a million people entering the continent from Turkey and North Africa. The law was implemented the following year.
As part of the 2015 agreement, the European Union pledged more than $5 billion in aid to stabilise economies and governments in the Sahel region to stem the flow of migrants.
“These projects had a number of objectives, including fighting illegal migration, improving public infrastructure, improving border capacity – but also supporting displaced populations,” explains Alia Fakhry, an expert on EU-Africa migration policy at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin.
“One of these projects was the project that helped the Niger state to build its border capacity and to draft this new law that criminalises irregular migration and its facilitation – basically the work of smugglers. And it’s that law that has now been revoked by the military junta,” Fakhry told VOA.
The EU said in September that 876 suspected traffickers had been prosecuted under the law between 2017 and 2023.
But on July 26, Niger’s military ousted democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum in a coup. Junta leader General Abdourahamane Tchiani announced in November that the government would repeal the 2015 migrant law, saying that all convictions under the legislation would be overturned.
Tchiani did not give a reason for the move, although observers say he is likely to be seeking local support and retaliating against the EU’s decision to suspend aid payments following the coup.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels on 28 November, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson expressed fears of a new influx of migrants.
“There is a huge risk that this will lead to new deaths in the desert. That’s the most worrying thing, but it would probably also mean more people coming to Libya, for example, and then perhaps trying to cross the Mediterranean to the EU today,” she said.
In a discussion paper published in September, the Council of the European Union had already expressed concerns about cooperation with Niger’s military junta following the 26 July coup.
“Given Niger’s role as a transit country, in particular through the central Mediterranean route, and its status as a host country, it is crucial to focus on the consequences of the events of 26 July,” the paper said.
“There is a theoretical risk of the instrumentalisation of migration – although there is no evidence of this at the moment – or of a halt in cooperation with the EU on migration and border management. Various scenarios are now possible regarding the evolution of migratory flows transiting Niger. Moreover, close attention needs to be paid to other countries in the region, such as Mauritania, where there could be migratory consequences of the coup in Niger,” the paper says.
Critics say the 2015 law forced migrants to take more dangerous routes across the Sahara to try to reach Europe and exposed them to abuse by Niger’s security forces.
Local media report that the repeal of the law has been welcomed in Niger and that traffickers are planning to resume operations. Its implementation in 2016 had devastated the local economy in migrant hubs such as Agadez, Fakhry said.
“A number of people simply lost their jobs in the region,” Fakhry said. “So smugglers, of course. People who were facilitating the travel and the journey of migrants. But also a number of people who directly or indirectly profited from the presence of migrants. These are people who prepare and sell food, people who sell water, people who offer accommodation, any kind of service to migrants.
Before the law was introduced, the Nigerien army often accompanied migrant convoys through the desert, demanding their own share of the profits.
“There may be an aim to return to the pre-2015 situation where migrant smuggling generated revenue for the military and the state,” Fakhry said.
Analysts say several factors will determine how quickly migrant flows could resume, including the situation in the migrants’ countries of origin and in transit countries north of Niger. The EU and individual European states have struck deals with Tunisia and Libya to crack down on irregular migration across the Mediterranean.