NIAMEY, Niger
Africans who return to their home continent after attempting to migrate abroad – particularly to Europe – face a host of difficulties, including extreme poverty.
Reception centers set up by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on the outskirts of Nigerien capital Niamey currently shelter over a dozen would-be migrants who recently returned from aborted attempts to reach Europe.
“When they arrive, usually cash-strapped, we give them toiletry kits,” Daouda Mahamadou, head of one such reception center, told Anadolu Agency.
“My wish was to go to Europe via Niger. I had no money left, so I had to return,” Maick Senghor, a 31-year-old Senegalese national who was forced to turn back after getting into a car accident from which he suffered third-degree burns, told Anadolu Agency.
Another returnee, Ibrahim Ousmane, said such accidents were commonplace.
“Those who have traveled from Dirkou [a town in Niger’s northeast] to the Libyan border can see the many graves on the way,” he told Anadolu Agency.
“These have become landmarks for travelers,” he added.
According to Paloma Casaseca, program assistant and communication manager for the IOM in Niamey, there are no reliable figures as to how many would-be migrants die each year in the desert wastes while attempting to reach greener pastures in Europe.
Casaseca said those who manage to escape death in the desert come to the IOM’s reception centers, where they are given support before being repatriated.
Since the beginning of the year, Casaseca added, IOM reception centers in Niamey have provided shelter to some 5,600 West African returnees – twice as many as were seen in 2014.
Every year, thousands of African would-be migrants head to Libya and Algeria in hopes of reaching Europe, a large number of whom die on the way, frequently due to dehydration.
