The criminalisation of mobility and the rhetoric of defending migrants: the Niger experiment
An anasysis by ASGI, Italian partner organisation of Alarme Phone Sahara (APS) - with an interview with APS.
"Niger plays a central role in European migration governance strategies. Since 2015, with the approval of Law No. 36, the dynamics of countering freedom of movement have multiplied: behind the rhetoric of combating trafficking and smuggling, there are the pressing EU interests of curbing mobility.
Since 2015, there has been a redefinition of the objectives of European cooperation with third countries from a securitarian and border management rather than development cooperation perspective. This change of direction is particularly evident in Niger, a country that occupies a central position in European migration management strategies.
This focus analyses, through four studies, the impact of these policies on the freedom of movement of ECOWAS citizens and on the construction of forced mobility channels in transit countries.
The strategies adopted by the European Union and international organisations in Niger in the last years are aimed at imposing a bureaucratic and judicial re-organisation of the State in order to reduce in the short term the number of migrants and asylum seekers in transit in the Agadez region, considering the country as the southern border of Europe. (...)"
