Algerian migrants have reportedly clashed at a migrant reception centre in Monastir, Sardinia, injuring four people. Police have warned that migrants are 'crammed together' in the center and have not been tested for COVID-19.
The Italian coast guard confirmed that on Sunday night it had saved six people from a boat that is thought to have set off from Algeria 10 days earlier. At least five of the migrants' companions died en route.
The Algerian authorities report that they stopped 755 people from trying to leave the country in an undocumented manner to get to Europe between September 20 and September 25.
Nearly 200 migrants have been rescued off Spain’s Balearic Islands. They were traveling in small wooden boats from Algeria.
Algerian authorities said they have foiled 42 departures towards European countries in five days, apprehending a total of 485 migrants. Officials also said they recovered the bodies of 10 people who died while attempting the crossing from North Africa to Europe.
The bodies of four Algerian migrants were retrieved after a makeshift raft capsized off the northeastern coast of Algeria. Five others were rescued by coast guards, according to the Algerian state news agency.
Amadou* had been working for two years in the southern Algerian city of Tamanrasset when policemen arrived to detain him and then send him back to the desert, in the direction of Niger. The thirty-year-old West African recounted his journey across the desert and his difficult return home.
Many African migrants remain undeterred in their endeavor to reach Europe despite the global pandemic situation due to the novel coronavirus and increased security measures. In Niger, it’s business-as-usual for migrants.
Spanish police announced on February 3 they had arrested 26 suspected smugglers. The group is thought to have brought more than 900 migrants from Algeria to Spain during 2019, earning at least €1.5 million.
After living in Germany for more than a year, Amin met a German woman and fell hopelessly in love. Two years after the beginning of their romance, Amin was deported to Algeria. Since then, they have done everything they can to be reunited. Here is Amin's story, in his own words:
In the Tenere desert in south central Sahara, days can go by without a single vehicle passing on the road. In March this year, the gear box on a truck carrying 25 migrants heading for Libya broke down. When help arrived three days later, the migrants were hungry, thirsty, and traumatized. Had it not been for their rescuers, Alarm Phone Sahara, they might well have perished.
Tens of thousands of people have set out from West and Central Africa in recent years in the hope of reaching Europe. Not all have completed the dangerous journey – opting instead to retrace their steps and return to their families. But going home brings new risks – including being seen by the community as ‘a failure’.