Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has reporetd that thousands of migrants deported from Algeria and abandoned in the desert of northern Niger are stranded without access to shelter, health care, protection, or basic necessities.
Development Diaries reports that 4,677 migrants arrived in Assamaka between 11 January and 03 March on foot with less than 15 percent of them unable to find shelter or protection.
In a statement, MSF called on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to immediately provide protection for the people abandoned in extremely precarious conditions in Assamaka.
Algeria, in September 2022, expelled 847 people from sub-Saharan Africa to Agadez. Later, another 669 persons were expelled to Niger.
It is understood that the Integrated Health Centre (IHC) in Assamaka is currently overwhelmed as thousands of migrants are seeking shelter in the facility.
‘The situation is worrying. Today, the health centre that we support in Assamaka is overflowing’, MSF Project Coordinator for Agadez, Schemssa Kimana, said in the statement.
‘The majority of people who have recently arrived in Assamaka have settled in the IHC compound due to a lack of space in the transit centre’.
According to Kimana, there are people sleeping in every corner of the facility. Some have set up makeshift tents at the entrance or in the courtyard. Others are understood to be camping in front of the maternity ward, on the roof, or in the waste area.
Development Diaries joins MSF in calling on ECOWAS to urgently provide protection for the people abandoned in extremely precarious conditions.
Source: MSF
Photo source: MSF
