Libya expels 613 migrants to Europe

The 613 men traveled from their native Niger to neighboring Libya, many of them intending to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea.

But late last month, Libyan authorities expelled the men in one of the country’s biggest deportations in years. Mass deportations are part of a routine: North African governments, funded by the European Union to deal with migration, use brutal tactics to keep sub-Saharan migrants from reaching Europe.

The 613 men arrived in Niger’s closest town on the Libyan border on January 3, distraught and hungry, some barefoot and sick after being held in detention for many moons and days across the Sahara. Two of the men died shortly after arriving in Niger.

“I lived in hell,” said Salmana Issoufou, one of the men. Mr. Issoufou, 18, said Libyan prison guards beat him with cables and weapons during the eight months he was held.

As anti-immigrant sentiment grows across Europe, from France to Germany to Hungary, sub-Saharan Africans trying to reach the continent are being pushed back by governments. North Africans have been largely invisible for many years. The European Union has signed a trade agreement with Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Mauritania, which includes financial support to stop the flow of migrants.

The strategy seems to be working: illegal border crossings fell significantly in 2024, according to recent data from the European border agency, Frontex.

But rights groups say the methods used to keep sub-Saharan migrants from reaching Europe include well-documented human rights abuses, such as so-called dumping. I was in the desert. Migrants were left in the Sahara without food or water, or held in North African prisons where they were subjected to torture, sexual violence and starvation.

Since Tunisia signed a deal with the European Union in 2023, it has driven more than 12,000 people, including children and pregnant women, to desert areas in Libya, the United Nations says . Last year, the EU signed a similar agreement with Mauritania.

In Libya, the EU funded the country’s coast guard, which has been accused of firing live ammunition during maritime seizures and handing over migrants to violent militias.

An investigation by a consortium of news last year showed that vehicles and intelligence provided by EU countries were being used by North African security forces to arrest or transport migrants. those in the desert.

The 613 men sent back to Niger this month had been held in Libya since late last fall, according to regional officials in Niger, who brought them from the border to Dirkou, a town in Nigeria about 260 miles south of Libya.

Two men died in Dirkou, according to Abba Tchéké, a social worker who helped the men there and works for Alarm Phone Sahara, a non-profit organization that rescues migrants stranded in the desert.

The men arrived in Agadez, the largest city in northern Niger and a major transit point for migrants, last week. They were exhausted and dehydrated, with skin wounds and broken legs. Half a dozen men who were deported said in interviews with The New York Times that they were tortured by Libyan authorities.

Adamou Harouna, 36, said he was burned by prison guards while in custody.

The mass expulsions from Libya echo similar movements from Algeria, which shares a 580-mile border with Niger and last year expelled more than 31,000 people, the highest number in years, according to Alarm Phone Sahara.

Algerian authorities dropped the migrants at the Niger border, forcing them to walk for hours through the desert before reaching the nearest town. Immigrants in Algerian prisons also face beatings and physical violence. (The European Union does not have an immigration agreement with Algeria.)

Although deportations from Libya to Niger are much lower than in Algeria, recent mass deportations have raised concerns about the possibility of an increase. Last year, hundreds of African citizens were forcibly returned from Libya to Chad, Egypt, Sudan and Tunisia, according to the United Nations.

In Africa, deported migrants are repatriated by the International Organization for Migration. In Niger, the organization transports people abandoned at the border back to Agadez and then to their homeland on planes that depart several times a week.

The organization organized a bus for the Nigerian men. Mr Issoufou, 18, said he would stay in Niger. Mr. Harouna said he plans to return to Libya as soon as possible.

Ibrahim Manzo Diallo contributed reporting from Niamey, Niger, Saikou Jammeh from Dakar, Senegal, and Jenny Gross from London.