The images show participants in the refugee protest in Agadez, Niger. People left the camp where UNHCR housed them on 16th of December 2019 and began a sit-in outside UNHCR headquarters in Agadez.

According to Aïr Info from Agadez, the demonstrators are almost 1000 people, most of them Sudanese refugees.

A main reason for the protest is that people in the UNHCR camp in Agadez are fed up with a situation where they are blocked without any progress in their asylum procedure, which is managed by UNHCR.

source of photos and video: Aïr Info, Agadez

The sit-in of refugees in Agadez in front of the UNHCR that started on 16th of November 2019 is part of successive refugee protests in Niger since early 2019.

All these protests are a response by the people concerned to a situation where more and more refugees who have fled war and persecution in their countries, such as Sudan, and who have often survived Libya, are stuck in Niger. Most of them are deprived of resettlement in a safe third country. In Niger, their legal proceedings at the level of UNHCR and local authorities are not progressing and their living conditions are very precarious in a country that is itself one of the poorest in the world.

This situation occurs in a context where European states are seeking to outsource the processing of cases of refugees, who have fled wars and persecution in countries like in East Africa, to countries far from the borders of Europe. The state of Niger is currently serving as a model for the outsourcing of the asylum system towards outside Europe, receiving considerable amounts of money from EU member states.

In solidarity with the refugees protesting in Niger, Alarme Phone Sahara calls on UNHCR, local authorities and also European countries to respond to their demands for a solution.

There must be quick and satisfying results in the asylum cases of the people concerned and as well resettlements to safe third countries for all who need it.