Since the beginning of 2018, a widespread campaign of arbitrary arrests, followed by mass and collective expulsions, has affected all migrants from sub-Saharan Africa on the national territory: Guineans, Burkinabe , Beninese, Malians, Ivorians, Senegalese, Nigerians, Liberians, Cameroonians, or Sierra Leoneans. They are pushed back to the borders, without any decision of justice, and the risk of their life. While there are no readmission agreements or requests from the respective governments of these countries for possible returns of their nationals,
More than 1,500 migrants have already been deported in recent weeks, during abusive operations and in flagrant contradictions with international human rights law.
Contrary to the official discourse that presents these deportation operations as “humanitarian repatriations”, the migrants targeted by this campaign are mostly women and men who work. Only in 2014, Niger has asked for an “opaque” agreement with the Algerian government for the return of its nationals, the majority of whom are women and children.
We, non-governmental organizations, defenders and human rights activists, journalists and civil society actors, signatories of this call, strongly denounce these operations of arbitrary expulsions, targeting thousands of sub-Saharan migrants. -s, some of whom are extremely vulnerable.
Therefore, we expressly call on the Algerian government:
– compliance with its commitments to implement the international conventions on the rights of migrant workers and refugee rights, ratified by Algeria, as well as the recommendations of the UPR and the Committee of Migrant Workers (CWM ), which were recently formulated at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva;
– to put in place, as a matter of urgency, a national legal framework respecting the rights of migrant workers, as well as an asylum law which allows them to have refugee status and guarantees their protection against all forms of abuse or exploitation;
– to stop amalgamating the struggles against trafficking and terrorism – legitimate when it comes to national security – and the obligation to respect the rights of refugees
and migrant workers;
– to stop the collective expulsion of migrant workers and asylum-seekers.
To join:
tousdesmigrants@hotmail.com
ALGERIA, MAY 18, 2018.