EUROPE-MIGRANTS/NIGER Police corruption, poverty block Niger's efforts to stem flood of migrants to Europe

Record ID: 151758

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/NIGER Police corruption, poverty block Niger's efforts to stem flood of migrants to Europe
  • Date: 19th June 2015
  • Summary: NIAMEY, NIGER (RECENT - MAY 2015)(REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS SLEEPING ON THE GROUND AND ON BENCHES AT NIAMEY BUS STATION, WAITING FOR BUS TO AGADEZ VARIOUS OF MIGRANT MEN SLEEPING ON FLOOR NEXT TO BAGS MIGRANTS WAITING AT NIAMEY BUS STATION MIGRANTS SAT ON BENCHES PEOPLE WAITING TO GET ON BOARD BUS FOR AGADEZ MIGRANTS GOING UP STAIRS ON BUS VARIOUS OF MIGRA
  • Embargoed: 4th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Niger
  • Country: Niger
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2S5UHLIDWOYO87K88B5SGV6KV
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Most of them have already travelled thousands of miles to get here, and have thousands more to go.
    It's the early hours of the morning and the courtyard of the Rimbo bus company in Niamey is scattered with dozens of sleeping migrants waiting to board the 3.00 a.m. buses that leave for Agadez. A number of private companies have sprung up to serve the route.
    Migrant flows across Niger toward Europe are forecast to reach record levels this year, with more than 100,000 people expected to be transited across the dessert through to Libya and Italy by international smuggling networks.
    Alarmed by the flood of migrants - more than 1,800 of whom have perished in the Mediterranean this year - European governments are looking to Niger for action.
    President Mahamadou Issoufou's government passed a tough anti-migrant smuggling law last month that establishes high prison terms, a law it hopes will succeed where others before it failed.
    "The best response when fighting illegal migrant-trafficking is to have an appropriate law that severely punishes traffickers in a way that they can't find themselves outside prison bars again to commit again new abuses of authority, and it's for that reason that the law is particularly harsh. We have planned for sentences between one and 30 years in prison, and fines between 3 and 30 million CFA francs (6,000 and 60,000 USD) and finally the seizing of the busses used in trafficking," said Goge Maimouna Gazibo, head of the National Agency for the Fight Against People Smuggling (ANLTP) and the woman tasked with applying the law.
    Niger passed another law, in 2013. Independent, undercover inspectors went to the town of Agadez, and concluded corruption was widespread, but the law was powerless in apprehending people-traffickers.
    Gazibo says with measures including infiltration of undercover personnel, this new law will succeed.
    "All these undercover guards will allow our Defence and Security forces and our magistrates to be able to apprehend the traffickers and to stop them from inflicting any more damage, a measure that two or three months ago was still not possible," Gazibo said.
    But officials in Niger, ranked as the poorest country on earth by the United Nations, admit that implementing that law requires overcoming endemic corruption in a country where a young police officer earns just 109,000 CFA francs ($187) a month.
    Since winning power in 2011, President Mahamadou Issoufou has made some progress in curbing graft.
    "It's the task of the police force, it's up to our forces to protect these people there and not exploit them in their misery. And of course, policemen, often in high positions, have been pursued (in justice) on this question there," said Justice Minister and government spokesman Marou Amadou.
    But when an undercover government investigator in Niger tried to confront security forces extracting bribes from African migrants at a checkpoint on the desert route to Europe, he was beaten and arrested by angry police.
    The confidential report from his mission in June 2013, seen by Reuters, concluded that corruption was so entrenched in the vast northern region of Agadez that tackling illegal migration required replacing all military and police officials.
    "The bad things (corruption) are so widespread that simply changing the commanders is not going to eradicate the problem. The majority of the people there need to change, there are people who've been there longer than 10 years. And maybe they are not bosses, but often they are more powerful than bosses themselves," said Ousmane Baydo, spokesman for the National Anti-corruption Body HALCIA, and a member of the mission investigating corruption in Agadez.
    Yet some analysts question if security forces can forego revenues from migration worth millions every year.
    The confidential 2013 report by the HALCIA anti-corruption agency said security forces and local authorities charged a total of 258,000 CFA francs ($443) per vehicle and 17,000 CFA francs ($30) per foreign migrant on the route from Agadez to Madama near the Libyan border.
    An October 2013 national police report said attempts to tackle the industry could spark riots in Agadez. With tourism devastated by the rise of Islamic militants in the Sahara and the region's uranium mining industry on its knees, smuggling brings millions of dollars to the desert town.
    Part of the challenge for authorities is that no one person controls the trade: the 2013 police report said there were more than 70 smugglers ghettos active in Agadez, each one protected by a paid police agent. A smuggler can make 3 million CFA (6,000 USD) with just one 4x4 packed with 30 migrants.
    Inspectors found that bribes paid by migrants were also essential to keep security forces functioning as money earmarked in the military budget to buying diesel for patrol vehicles, spare parts and food had disappeared, so commanders were forced to use money from bribes to carry out official duties.
    "Nowadays paying is a must. They (police) search you for money sometimes, they search passengers to take their money," said David Ousseni, a 34-year-old middle man who runs a ghetto for migrants in Agadez.
    "This traffic has been made easier by lack of serious controls at checkpoints where unfortunately people (security forces) are more preoccupied about how much money they are going to make from migrants than they are about whether they conduct any controls, an element which is forgotten. This means that smugglers do what they want without the risk of getting caught," Baydo said.
    What complicates the task of authorities is that, with visa-less travel in the 15-nation West African bloc Ecowas, Niger cannot prevent citizens of neighbouring countries transiting if they have their identity documents. Only if migrants cross into Libya without a visa do they become illegal.
    A whole industry has sprung to serve the migrant routes. Baydo said during his inspection he found that prostitution was one of the main sources of income, and that people-smugglers came from many different countries. Some were Nigerien or Libyan, but others came from Nigeria or Ghana.
    They would entice girls to come to Niger to work in hair salons or restaurants, but when they arrive, they are forced to become prostitutes, to support the migrant smuggling networks.
    "They make people come, particularly women, to force them into prostitution. So these (middle) men profit directly from prostitution. So stopping the prostitution in Agadez and Dirkou is important, it is what finances the trips to Libya. So all of that is still going on there. I can't tell you everything that goes on, but it all carries on undisturbed," Baydo said.
    But with remittances from migrants making up a sizeable part of the economy in many poor West African economies - more than 10 percent in both Senegal and Gambia - question marks remain over how determined they are to combat illegal migration.
    Niger and its foreign partners recognise that if they are to stem the deadly trade, both migrants and smugglers need economic alternatives.
    Lamine Bandaogo, a lean 17-year-old fleeing poverty in Burkina Faso says his dream is to be able to earn 200 USD to give his family.
    He says back at home there is no hope of building a rewarding future for himself.
    Bandaogo said he saw on French TV what happened to the hundreds of migrants who perished in the Mediterranean. But that could never deter him.
    "In terms of jobs you can't do anything but petty trade. That's why we had to leave. We haven't got any choice, what can we do?"
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