The European Union expressed concern over a surge in African migrants after Niger authorities repealed a law criminalising the trafficking of migrants in the country.
The legislation, known as Law 2015-36, was drafted in 2015 in coordination with the EU and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. 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.
Alia Fakhry, an expert on EU-Africa migration policy at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, said the projects “had a number of objectives, including combating illegal migration, improving public infrastructure, improving border capacity.”
“One of these projects was the project that supported the Niger state to build its border capacity and to draft this new law that would criminalise irregular migration and its facilitation — the work of smugglers, basically. And it’s this law that’s now been revoked (…)”
On 26 July, Niger’s military ousted democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum in a coup d’état. Rebel leader General Abdourahamane Tchiani announced in November that the government was cancelling the 2015 migrant law and declared that all convictions under the law would be overturned. In September, the EU reported 876 suspected traffickers were prosecuted under the law between 2017 and 2023.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels on November 28, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson voiced fears of a new migrant influx.
There is a huge risk that this will cause new deaths in the desert. That’s the most concerning thing, but it would also probably mean more people coming to Libya, for example, and then maybe also trying to cross the Mediterranean today to the EU.
Critics claim the 2015 law forced migrants to pick more dangerous routes across the Sahara Desert to try to reach Europe and exposed migrants to abuse by Niger’s security forces. Local media report that the repeal of the law was welcomed in Niger, with migrant traffickers planning to resume their activities.
“A number of people simply went out of a job in the region. So, smugglers, of course. People who were facilitating the travel and journey of migrants. But also, a bunch of people who benefited directly or indirectly from the presence of migrants. These are people who were preparing and selling food, people who were selling water, offering accommodation, any other kind of service to migrants.”
Before the law came into force, the Nigerian army often escorted migrant convoys across the desert and demanded its share of the profits.
There might be an objective to return to the pre-2015 situation where migrant smuggling created revenues for the military and for the state.
According to experts, several factors will determine how swiftly migrant flows can resume. These include the situation in countries of origin and transit countries north of the Niger. The EU and individual European states have concluded agreements with Tunisia and Libya to curb illegal migration across the Mediterranean Sea.
