Mrs Benhabiles: “Transfer back home of 6,000 sub-Saharan migrants within a year”

The President of the Algerian Red Crescent (ARC), Mrs Saida Benhabiles, confirmed to “Echorouk” the transfer of around 6,000 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, mainly from Niger, to their country of origin, since December of last year up to the present date, stressing that the deportation process goes on continuously by guaranteeing all the migrants’ rights.

According to Mrs Benhabiles, these Niger migrants, before being deported, are taken care of medically, and the sick and the pregnant women are banned from travel.

She added that Algeria is the only country to host Sub-Saharans and Syrians as they have been accommodated in reception centers with total care and schooling for their children, indicating that the transfer back home of Niger migrants is being carried out at the request of their own government.

In this sense, the president of the Algerian Red Crescent further asserted that since last year she’s been sensitizing partners to finance mini-projects in a bid to stabilize these migrants in their own country but only Switzerland responded positively to the call by allocating 500,000 Swiss francs.

As for other migrants who settled in dozens of makeshift tents at the bus station of the coastal town of Bou Ismail in the western province of Tipasa, the ARC President stressed that she would shortly send a team to take care of them and house them into

reception centers or deport them, if need be, to their own country as was the case for those who had settled before in the suburban Dar Al-Beida municipality in Algiers province.