Over 7,000 migrants are stranded in Niger, unable to be repatriated since the coup by the junta in July and the closing of airspace and land borders.
Niger is an important route both for Africans trying to reach Libya as a jumping-off spot to cross the Mediterranean to Europe and those who are returning to their homes with help from the United Nations.
UN officials estimate about 1,800 are living on Niger’s streets because centres run by the International Organization for Migration, IOM, are too crowded to take in more. The centres hold about 5,000 people trying to get home.
The UN agency had been assisting approximately 1,250 people a month to return to their countries this year, after failing to cross the Mediterranean into Europe.
But the closure of borders and airspace, according to Paola Pace, acting interim chief of mission for the agency in Niger, has forced it to temporarily suspend returns and its centres are now jammed at 14% over capacity,
“This situation poses challenges for migrants as migrants staying in these centres may experience heightened stress and uncertainty with limited prospects for voluntary return and already crowded facilities,” she said.
Pace expressed worries the stall in the transiting of Africans seeking to get home could increase exploitation of vulnerable people by traffickers and smugglers who normally focus on individuals trying to migrate to Europe.
The shelters are helping people who are making their way home, rather than would-be migrants heading to Europe — a northern flow that has seen more than 100,000 cross the central Mediterranean to Italy so far this year, according to Italy’s interior ministry.
COOPI, an Italian aid group that provides shelter for migrants in Niger’s northern town of Assamakka, near the border with Algeria, said since the coup in Niger, an additional 1,300 people have entered its centre, trying to return home.
COOPI assists the UN in hosting people, but has warned that it would run out of food and water if the borders don’t open soon.
Not only are migrants unable to leave but aid groups are also unable to bring in food and medical supplies.
Morena Zucchelli, head of mission for COOPI in Niger, said it had only enough food stocks to last until the end of August, while its funding would run out at the end of September, creating humanitarian crisis.
“If the situation doesn’t change … we can’t guarantee things will continue running,” she said.
Before the coup, Niger worked with the European Union in trying to slow the flow of migrants north to Libya and Algeria.
The EU had been scheduled to provide more than $200 million to Niger to help it address security, socio-economic and migration challenges.
Anitta Hipper, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, could not say yesterday whether cooperation on migration had been suspended, saying only that the EU would continue to “monitor and evaluate the situation.”
Sahr John Yambasu is one of the migrants who, after three months of crossing the desert and watching other migrants die at sea in his failed attempt to reach Europe, gave up on getting across the Mediterranean and decided to go back home but got trapped due to the border closure.
The 29-year-old from Sierra Leone reached Niger in June on his return journey, but United Nations officials said he had to wait for packed migrant centres to empty out before he could be repatriated.
Then mutinous soldiers toppled Niger’s president a few weeks later, bringing regional tensions and the shuttering of the borders.
Momo Kmulbah is another of those trying to get back home in Liberia. He says many of them have nowhere to turn for help, and that UN officials have told him to be patient.
The 36-year-old has been sleeping on the pavement in Niger’s capital, Niamey, with his two daughters and wife since June and now begs for food.
