Algeria Faces Increasing Dangers of Transnational Organized Crime With Niger-Mali Complicity
The danger of the activity of criminal networks specialized in trafficking and smuggling African migrants across Algeria’s borders with Mali, Niger and Libya is growing, the international expert on migration and threats in the Sahel region, Hacene Kacimi, warned.
In an interview with Algeria International Radio, Monday, Kacimi stressed the great repercussions of the activity of these networks on the national and geo-strategic security of Algeria, because the activity of these networks is in harmony with international Zionist plans that seek to settle these Africans on the land of Algeria within a cunning plan aimed at changing the demographic composition of the border states located in the Greater South, making it easier to undermine the unity and stability of the country in the future.
Last Thursday, the Nigerien ambassador to Algeria, Aminou Malam Manzo, was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and according to a statement by the ministry, “this meeting mainly dealt with cooperation between the two countries in the field of deporting Nigerien citizens residing illegally in Algeria, a cooperation that was the subject of some rulings issued by the Nigerian authorities that the Algerian side considers to be unfounded provisions.”
“The Ambassador of the Republic of Niger was reminded of the existence of a bilateral framework dedicated to this issue,” the statement added drowing his attention to the fact that this framework must remain the preferred space for discussing and addressing all data and all developments related to this file.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ statement concluded: “It was reiterated to the attention of the Ambassador of the Republic of Niger that Algeria’s firm adherence to the basic rules of good neighborliness, and its will to continue coordination with Niger on this issue related to migration flows, and on any other issue within the framework of mutual respect and on the basis of the values of cooperation, trust and solidarity.”
For his part, Kacimi called on the Algerian government “to move quickly to thwart these scenarios that are being prepared in dark rooms by circles and countries that are hostile to Algeria,” and suggested “assigning the Ministry of Justice to prepare a draft law to combat trafficking and migrant smuggling networks and present it to the two chambers of Parliament for approval, in line with the recognized international agreements, most notably the UN Palermo Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.”
Kacimi described the recent actions taken by the transitional authorities in Niger towards Algeria as “hostile,” after Algeria’s decision to voluntarily deport illegal immigrants coming from this country, which prompted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the national community abroad to summon the ambassador of the State of Niger last Thursday to remind him of the presence of “ A bilateral framework dedicated to this issue within the frameworks of bilateral cooperation and good neighbourliness.”
Within this context, the guest of Radio Algeria International revealed that “the authorities emerging from the military coup in Niger have recently suspended the provisions of the law approved by the legitimate government in Niamey in 2015, which stipulates the prosecution and criminalization of trafficking and migrant smuggling networks, which encourages the growth of the activity of these criminal networks across the Algerian border and opens the way for new waves of African migrants to flow in thousands to the North African region, specifically Algeria.”
