Sitting in the middle of a pile of fabric, Osman Issa’s face shines with sweat. A fan barely cools his 8 square meter studio on a sweltering summer day in July. From his sewing table, a karakou (traditional Algiers outfit) above his head, Osman recalls his crossing of the desert to come to Algeria twenty-six years ago. “I decided to leave Niger under the encouragement of my brother who had made the crossing before me”, he says in an almost perfect Algerian dialect. Upon his arrival in 1997, Osman, a quality embroiderer, had launched himself with some success in the trade of traditional outfits. From now on, he owns this sewing workshop in a popular district of Algiers.
While the debate on the place of sub-Saharan migrants in North African countries has been revived by events in Tunisia and the pushback operations at the border by the Algerian authorities, he claims to have found his place. “In three decades, I haven’t been the victim of a racist act that made me regret coming,” he promises. Like most sub-Saharan migrants, Osman did not see Algeria as an anchor point, but as a place of transit to Europe. “I tried to cross three times, but failed. Now married to an Algerian and father of three children, he has a residence card and no longer plans to leave for Europe or return to Niger, except for family visits.
“I admit that it was very difficult for me to regularize my situation, even after my marriage. I often compare myself to my brother who left for Belgium long after me. He already has his nationality. I know I won’t get it. Algerian nationality? You should not ask for the impossible, ”he admits, without denying the prevailing racism. When he doesn’t witness it himself, stories come to him from the migrants he employs: “They’re aiming to go to Europe. Smugglers ask for up to 3,000 euros. Which represents three years of hard work for a migrant. Others prefer to return to their country with this sum and try the visa for Europe. In both cases, this money can only be raised in Algeria. This is where the work is. »
” For God’s sake ! »
At the exit of Osman’s workshop, the air-conditioned tram car offers an escape from the heat wave. “Alms for God’s sake!” begs a young sub-Saharan migrant from the back of the train. As the child makes his way, some passengers dig into their pockets to hand him a few pennies, others do not hide their exasperation. The scene is now part of daily life in Algiers. Migrants are now qualified by the locals as sadaka (almsgiving).
In Algiers, the lives of sub-Saharan migrants have not been disrupted by recent events in Tunisia. Since July 3, after the death in Sfax of a Tunisian in a fight with migrants, natives have hunted down sub-Saharans and the authorities have expelled hundreds of them from the city where the tragedy took place. Even those in a regular situation are not spared. For several weeks, many Sfaxiens have been demonstrating against the increase in the number of candidates for exile to Europe arriving from Algeria.
Most of them crossed the border at the mountainous region of Kasserine, in the center west of Tunisia. A perilous journey: nine migrants lost their lives there in mid-May, “died of thirst and cold”, according to Tunisian justice.
It is in this same area that 150 to 200 people were pushed back by the Tunisian authorities, according to estimates by Human Rights Watch (HRW), in addition to the 500 to 700 migrants abandoned in the border area with Libya. “These are estimates that we established after contacting the migrants and after identifying their whereabouts,” said Salsabil Chellali, HRW’s director for Tunisia. Migrants expelled from the Algerian side dispersed after being forced to walk for several kilometres. »
” Racist Thoughts “
These migrant groups include children and pregnant women. One of them gave birth at the gates of Algeria, as evidenced by a video received by Le Monde. According to HRW, a group of migrants, turned back at the Libyan border, were rescued and taken care of in towns in southern Tunisia. Others, on the Libyan and Algerian borders, are still wandering in the desert, waiting for help and assistance.
Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed’s comments in February denouncing “hordes of illegal migrants” as a source of “violence, crimes and unacceptable acts” had a disinhibiting effect, particularly on influencers and popular artists in Algeria. The raï singer Cheba Warda thus said she supported the plan to expel President Tebboune when no speech had been made by the latter.
In June, the Algerian influencer Baraka Meraia, followed by more than 275,000 people, denounced the anti-Black racism of which she was also the victim. Originally from In Salah, more than a thousand kilometers south of Algiers, the young woman said she had been mistaken several times for a sub-Saharan migrant. In a video, she appeared in tears to recount the behavior of an Algiers tram controller. “It’s not the first time I’ve heard racist remarks,” she said. Of all the people who witnessed the scene, none reacted. »
“They wander in the desert”
In addition to the racist acts and remarks to which they are exposed, migrants live under the threat of deportation operations. According to the NGO Alarm Phone Sahara, which comes to their aid, Algeria returned more than 11,000 people to Niger between January and April 2023. The operations are still in progress, according to the same source, and operate at a minimum rate of one convoy per week since 2018. “These expulsions are carried out on the basis of an agreement with Niger. However, Algeria does not take into consideration the nationality of the migrants it deports,” says Moctar Dan Yayé, communications manager for Alarm Phone Sahara.
According to him, the migrants are routed to Tamanrasset, in the far south of Algeria, then to the border with Niger. From this no man’s land, the refoulés have to walk about 15 km to reach the village of Assamaka, where the sorting operation begins. “We ran into Yemenis and even a migrant from Costa Rica. These, like other Africans, are not supported by Niger. Sometimes, the World Organization for Migration (IOM) takes care of sending them back home. Otherwise, they wander in the desert trying to get back to Algeria,” reports Moctar Dan Yayé. According to Alarm Phone Sahara, more than 7,500 deported migrants remain stranded in Assamaka.
Despite this threat of deportation and the incendiary speeches of the Tunisian president, they keep their eyes riveted on the Mediterranean, like these two young Senegalese, Aliou and Demba*, met in April in Tamanrasset. After crossing Mali and Niger, their wanderings brought them to this urban island, planted in the middle of the desert, where they found only a few jobs on construction sites, paid just 1,000 dinars a day, barely 7 euros . Demba then hoped to join Tunisia, without fear that the words of its leader would affect his ambition. Only three months ago, he was convinced that migrants did not risk deportation from Tunisia, contra Assamaka
dearly to Algeria. The only problem then in his eyes and those of his friend was to find the money to pay the smugglers.
