Reports from a number of transit countries for migrants en route towards the EU show that the spread of Covid-19 throughout the African continent, albeit much more limited than most expected, is being used as a tool to further reduce border crossings and mobility in general.
“While countries across Africa have been closing their borders as part of efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic, migrants and people on the move are paying a high price”, says Giacomo Zandonini, reporting from Niger, one of the most problematic transit countries in Africa. Deportations from neighboring Algeria to the Nigerien desert have not been stopped during these emergency times, with migrants forced into quarantine periods in the scorching heat of the Saharan desert. Resettlement operations of refugees stuck in the country for months have come to a complete halt. According to a Mixed Migration report, 67% of migrants in Niger experienced increased difficulties in crossing borders 26% also a reduced access to smugglers, the only way out of the country for most.
Algerian authorities have continued their efforts to block unauthorised migration from sub-Saharan countries, including detaining irregular migrants and arresting alleged traffickers. The country reportedly also blocked deportations of foreigners but continued those towards Niger, albeit in lower numbers.
The situation is particularly critical in Libya, adding to a number of acute dangers migrants and refugees have been facing in the country since a long time. The influx of migrants into the country seems to continue, despite restrictive measures imposed by the government. There are conflicting reports as to whether the spread of coronavirus has led to the release of some migrants from official detention centers, whose staff seems to have been reduced, and which appear increasingly unwilling to admit new migrants intercepted at sea in the fear of a mass infection among detainees. However, there appears to have been an increase in the number of migrants detained in unofficial detention centers run by militias in Tripoli and other Libyan cities. Fears of migrants, stuck between a civil war and a pandemic, are exacerbated by the fact that local hospitals are collapsing, especially after months of continuous assaults by Haftar’s forces on Tripoli.
Similarly, refugees transported to Rwanda from Libyan prisons under an UNHCR evacuation scheme have seen their prospects of being resettled to EU or other destination countries postponed indefinitely because of the pandemic.
The virus spread had detrimental effect also on the living conditions of refugees stuck in camps in transit countries such as Ethiopia and Mauritania.
After Morocco declared the state of emergency, closing all borders, many migrants were trapped in the country. In April, 41 undocumented migrants died while trying to cross to the Canary Islands from Morocco. Even though borders have been shut due to the Covid-19 pandemic, migrants and asylum seekers in Morocco have reportedly been deported to the Algerian border and left in the desert. Despite these serious allegations, the Moroccan government has received a €450 million grant from the European Union to support its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
ASGI reiterates that restrictive measures to limit the spread of covid-19 should not be used as an excuse to further crack down on vulnerable migrants’ right to seek international protection. To further limit their mobility, already greatly reduced by decades of externalization policies, exposes those who are fleeing persecution or generalized violence, to additional unnecessary difficulties, and violates their fundamental right to life, health, and asylum.
Photo by Alessio Barbini