Alarme Phone Sahara activists with people stranded in Assamaka after deportation from Algeria ©APS
European border policy does not end at the EU’s external borders. Through deals with states in North and West Africa, migration is already being repressively controlled far to the south of the Mediterranean coast – at the cost of border violence and human rights violations, and often with fatal consequences for people fleeing their homes.
Thousands are dying not only in the Mediterranean or the Atlantic, but also on the refugee and migration routes through the Sahara. Also alarming are the mass deportations from
Algeria, which maintains police cooperation with Germany and Italy, amongst others: in 2025 alone, over 34,000 people were deported under appalling conditions to the border of neighbouring Niger, where some were abandoned in the middle of the desert.
Alarme Phone Sahara (APS) operates in the city of Agadez and in northern Niger – where people setting out on their journeys and survivors of pushbacks and border violence come together. The reports straight from Niger bring home just how far the European border regime is encroaching and how severely it is affecting life on the ground.
Alarme Phone Sahara reports on its solidarity-based work to counter the effects of European border externalisation policies: About supporting people who find themselves in distress on the Sahel-Sahara routes or who have been deported to the Nigerien border. About emergency calls in the desert region, the documentation of missing persons cases, and support for daily survival in the migrant ghettos. About what actually happens in the Sahara between border control and emergency aid.
At a time when numerous states are violating the human rights of refugees or using events such as the arrival of people in Ceuta as a pretext for further militarisation of borders, we are strengthening solidarity-based cooperation between human rights defenders in West and North Africa and in Europe.
Info-tour programme:
29 September, 6.00 pm, Berlin, Aquarium (Skalitzer Straße 6)
Colonial continuities in Europe and Africa following the CEAS (Common European Asylum System): What can be done to counter the authoritarian shift?
Panel discussion with Hanaa Hakiki (ECCHR), Clara Bünger (Member of the Left Party in the German Bundestag), Azizou Chéhou (Alarme Phone Sahara), Jennifer Kamau (International Women* Space Berlin) and Sofian Philip Naceur (Rosa Luxemburg Foundation North Africa, Tunis, journalist).
Organisers: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Office of MP Clara Bünger (The Left).
1 October, 3.00 pm, Erfurt, Protestant Office for Foreign Residents (Wenigermarkt 5)
Pushbacks into the desert, the EU migration deal and the work of APS
Organiser: Protestant Office for Foreign Residents
2 October, 5.00 pm, Jena, Junge Gemeinde Stadtmitte (Johannisstraße 14)
“From Agadez to Thuringia: Where Europe’s border really begins”
Organiser: Thuringia Refugee Council
3 October, 3.30–8.30 pm Berlin, Spore Initiative (Hermannstr 86)
From the Streets of Tripoli to the ICC: Five Years of Struggle and Solidarity with Refugees in Libya Connecting Migrant-led Movements that Challenge Europe’s Mobility Regime
Participation by Alarme Phone Sahara
Organiser: “Refugees in Libya”
5 October, 4.00 pm, Berlin Hellersdorf, ASH Pavilion (Alice-Salomonplatz 5)
The right to freedom of movement and to live and stay in dignified conditions – What prospects do we see for a sustainable, just world?
Discussion with Azizou Chehou, Niger, APS and the Nigerien Youth Association for Sustainable Development (JNSDD); Dorette Führer, Afrique-Europe-Interact / Germany; Blaise Baneh Mbuh, Bamenda Film School.
Organisers: Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences and Neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst
Further information: alarmephonesahara.info/
Alarme Phone Sahara assisting people deported from Algeria to Assamaka with its tricycle ©APS
Women on the move at Collective Kitchen for women in Agadez ©APS
Alarme Phone Sahara assisting people stranded in the Kaouar desert ©APS
