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Monthly Mixed Migration Summary West Africa, October 2017

Attachments

Highlights in October

  • The African Regional Consultative Meeting on the Global Compact on Migration took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 26-27 October. Participants agreed upon recommendations and actionable commitments on the Global Compact and underscored the desire of member states to own the narrative of the African migration story.

  • Algeria has forcibly expelled over 2,000 sub-Saharan migrants to Niger and Mali since late September, including 300 minors, according to a report from Amnesty International. Amnesty claims that the arrests of migrants were made on the basis of racial profiling and that authorities did not ascertain whether the migrants had the right to stay in the country; some of those arrested and deported were undocumented while others had valid visas. Some 15 refugees and asylum-seekers who were among those detained by the police were released after an intervention by UNHCR.

  • UNHCR reported that the agency had registered some 2,000 Cameroonians in south-eastern Nigeria after they had fled from the English speaking regions of Cameroon. A further 3,000 others are awaiting registration. According to UNOCHA, a humanitarian assistance plan is being readied for up to 40,000 people who could cross into Nigeria if the crisis escalates.

  • Save the Children announced that it had suspended migrant rescues in the Mediterranean as departures from Libya slowed and security conditions worsened.