Algeria: migrants sold as slaves?

Sub-Saharan migrants have claimed to have been tortured and sold as slaves in Algeria.

While Algeria has not finished to rebel against the criticism of the UN on the treatment of migrants, this country of North Africa faces new charges.

This time, it is sub-Saharan migrants who claimed to have been tortured and sold as slaves by “smugglers” who were most often of their own nationality in the city of Tamanrasset.

This is at least what reported on Wednesday, May 30, 2018, by the Reuter’s news agency, which, in addition to evidence gathered by the agency in Agadez, Niger, cited an investigation by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which questioned thousands of migrants after they left the country led by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Reuters reports that testimonies have reported details of forced labour and slavery imposed on migrants of different sub-Saharan nationalities.

The case of a young Guinean was mentioned. This is a man named Ousmane Bah, a 21-year-old Guinean worker, who said he was sold twice in Algeria by unidentified kidnappers.

“The first time they sold me for 100,000 CFA francs,” he told the news agency.

For his part, a Togolese migrant reported being tortured in the sheep farm where he had been forced to work.

Abdoulaye Maizoumbou, a member of a charity organization in Agadez, Niger, told the news agency that some 20 of the 30 migrants returned from Algeria he met also claimed to have been slaves, most of them sold to Tamanrasset, often by smugglers of their own nationality.

For the time being, the Algerian authorities have not reacted to these accusations, which are serious and could bring a blow to the image of this country in North Africa.