From Assamaka to Agadez, protection services for vulnerable children
Since the beginning of 2023, UNICEF has taken care of 263 unaccompanied children repatriated from Algeria. In 2022, 29 convoys repatriated Nigeriens, including 2,285 unaccompanied children. Among them, 93 were victims of trafficking.
Assamaka is a small town in the middle of the desert, on the border between Algeria and Niger. The wind blows incessantly and sand rushes in everywhere. On the Niger side, trucks are waiting to leave for Tahoua and Agadez, filled with biscuits, pasta and powdered milk, subsidised in the Maghreb and forbidden for export.
In the middle of the dunes, silhouettes can be seen - mostly men on foot. These so-called "unofficial" expelled people include nationals from West and Central Africa, also known as "pedestrians". Those who precede them, usually one or two days before the pedestrians, are mostly Nigeriens: that morning, there were 1,124 individuals in the official convoy bringing them back from Algeria.
As soon as they arrived on Nigerien soil, 128 minors were identified and taken care of by social workers from the Regional Directorate for the Promotion of Women and Child Protection. With support from UNICEF, there are seven social workers in the region who focus solely on Nigerien children who are alone - whether they have run away, have been rejected by their families, or, for the most part, have been sent on a migratory journey that condemns them to begging, and exposes them to risks that are tenfold due to their age.
In Algeria, the "godmothers" who take care of the children take their share of the money collected by the children who beg at traffic lights. "The women pretend that these children are theirs, but most of the time, they have been entrusted to them by their parents, who come from the same region as them," explains a social worker, as the counting began in the large, windy and sandy open-air police station. "The parents, most of whom are farmers, have heard that sending a child to beg in Algeria can bring in money to pay off debts, to live a little better, or a little less badly.”
That morning, among the repatriated Nigeriens, there was a sibling group of three children, alone. The eldest, aged 13, explains: "We lived in an abandoned building site in Algiers with my mother, my 7-year-old sister and my infant brother. In the absence of my father, and with my mother ill, all the burdens fell on me.”
Every day, the children went begging in the streets of Algiers to pay for their mother's treatment for a severe form of diabetes. When they were rounded up after a few days in the detention centre known as "Camp Ibrahim", the young mother and her children were loaded onto a bus with other Nigeriens. "On the way to Tamanrasset, my mother's condition worsened, and I asked the driver to take us to the hospital to treat her, but he refused. I also asked if I could take her to the hospital myself, but he again refused. I tried to give her an injection as usual, but this time I couldn't, the syringe broke.”
The young boy continues his story calmly, jaws clenched, his little brother in his arms: "A few kilometres from the Tamanrasset camp, I saw that my mother was dead on her seat. When I arrived at the Tamanrasset camp, the soldiers made all the passengers get off the bus - except for my mother, whom I was unable to carry. I begged them to let me say goodbye and pray over her ("Doua'a") but they refused. I don't know if my mother was buried or not.”
With the other children, the siblings will spend the night in Assamaka while waiting for the military escort that will take them to Arlit, before arriving in Agadez, at the Transit and Orientation Centre (CTO).
At the CTO, the décor is reassuring. On the walls, cartoon characters and frescoes recounting the children's migratory journey. The paintings depicting soldiers have been scraped off by the children. Those who arrive that day are covered in dust, exhausted. Some are injured, one young girl compulsively hits her head. The younger ones rush to the swings and slides, the others to the showers.
"Many of these children arrive traumatised by their journey. Their stay in this CTO allows them to rest, wash, eat... but also to play and talk about what they have been through, and thus to reduce some of the stress they have undergone," explains Fatimoutou Alhousseini, a social worker. In the evening, a vigil is organised: the children sing, dance, and take turns taking the microphone to talk about what they have been through.
A protection file is opened for each child. This file follows them back to their hometown to ensure follow-up. Indeed, part of the social workers' mission is to manage mediation with the families. The social workers were able to make the link with the Regional Directorate for the Promotion of Women and Child Protection in Zinder, which located the family of the three children. The children were rehoused with their grandmother.
In 2022, 29 convoys repatriated Nigeriens from Algeria. Among them were 2,082 unaccompanied children and 81 separated children. A total of 2,285 unaccompanied children, including 980 girls and 93 victims of trafficking, were cared for at the Agadez CTO, rehabilitated by UNICEF in 2019.
Its operating costs are covered by UNICEF, thanks to a grant from the European Union under the project "Access to justice for mobile and other vulnerable children in West Africa".
