The news of the massive influx of refugees and migrants into Europe in 2015 is still fresh in our memories. The images of people risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean by boat and Europe’s response drew significant attention. That influx continues today. However, this is only one part of the journey that migrants and refugees undertake. Before they ever board a boat, what are they fleeing, and where have they come from? What hardships do they face along the way? These aspects rarely receive attention.

Many of the migrants and refugees aiming for Europe originate in countries such as Syria and Iraq and travel via routes through Turkey and Greece. In addition, a very large number originate in Africa and attempt to reach Europe by crossing the Sahara Desert. This Sahara route is fraught with danger. Although precise figures are difficult to calculate, the death toll among migrants and refugees in the Sahara is said to be at least twice the number who die crossing the Mediterranean. This article examines the realities facing African migrants and refugees who take this dangerous Sahara route.

A migrant kneels in the Sahara Desert. Perhaps in prayer. (Photo: giomodica /Wikimedia Commons [CC BY 3.0])

Where do migrants and refugees come from?

Armed conflict, repressive regimes, and poverty have produced many migrants and refugees across Africa. However, the vast majority of refugees flee to neighboring or nearby countries and remain on the continent while waiting for the day they can return home; only about 3.3% move on to Europe.

First, Nigeria produces the largest number of migrants and refugees in West Africa. Over the past five years, conflict around Lake Chad between the armed group Boko Haram and the governments of Nigeria and neighboring countries has continued, displacing civilians in and around Nigeria. Mali is also grappling with conflict. This conflict began as a fight between the Tuareg, a nomadic people in the north seeking independence, and the government trying to prevent it, but worsened when Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups active in neighboring countries joined the fray.

Another prominent source of refugees outside West Africa is Eritrea, on the Red Sea. Though not at war, it is a dictatorship that has imposed an indefinite conscription policy in preparation for war with Ethiopia, with which it was hostile until recently. It ranked the second worst in press freedom after North Korea. With the freedom and rights of citizens disregarded, many refugees are fleeing the country.

There are also many migrants from West African countries and elsewhere who aim for Europe to escape extreme poverty. This is true not only in Nigeria but also in Guinea, Senegal, and Ghana, where poverty—and the resulting lack of access to education and decent healthcare—are major drivers. In addition, people working in agriculture in Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest cocoa producer, are vulnerable to cocoa price fluctuations and lament that unfair trade leaves them with only low wages. With few jobs for young people, the number of those heading to Europe to break out of their situation is increasing year by year.

Thus, people suffering for a variety of reasons risk everything—along with all their worldly possessions—to reach Europe.

How do migrants and refugees cross the desert?

Many migrants and refugees converge in Libya and then board boats to cross to the nearest point in Italy. In 2016, 130,000 people reached Europe via this route. Libya was relatively wealthy within Africa, and its oil wealth had drawn many workers from other African countries. Moreover, the former supreme leader Muammar Gaddafi received large payments from Italy in exchange for keeping migrants and refugees on the African continent to stem their surge into Europe. After the Gaddafi regime fell in 2011 and a transitional government was established, the new government was unable to control the entire country. As a result, Libya effectively fell under the control of multiple militias and armed groups, and large numbers of migrants and refugees began to flow out. Smuggling networks and criminal organizations also grew, and more people took on roles as intermediaries in human trafficking as a lucrative business.

Before the collapse of the Gaddafi regime in Libya, a billboard praising the supreme leader at Sebha Airport (Photo: David Stanley (Billboard) /Wikimedia Commons [ CC BY 2.0])

After leaving their home countries, migrants and refugees are loaded onto smugglers’ trucks and move in groups across the Sahara, heading to Libya via several staging points. This route is based on the historic trans-Saharan trade routes, and the former commercial hubs that once thrived on that trade still serve as waystations for migrants and refugees today.

One of the main staging points, the Nigerien city of Agadez, declined due to the rise of extremist and armed groups, but its advantage as a transport hub made it an important smuggling hub. Members of nomadic groups who had long worked in the tourism industry as tour guides in the Ténéré Desert began competing for work, and many turned to smuggling. Other hubs include Bamako, the capital of Mali, and Niamey, the capital of Niger, which, as key air and land transport nodes and economic centers, attract many migrants and refugees.

Created based on data from the BBC

What harms do migrants and refugees face?

After leaving their home countries and transiting various states, migrants and refugees aim to cross the Mediterranean—mostly from Libya—to reach Europe. It can take months, and sometimes even years, for them to arrive. During this long period, beyond traveling through the desert, they also work to earn living and transportation costs, all while constantly facing dangers such as robbery, sexual violence, human trafficking, and assault. Even shouldering these risks, only a small fraction manage to reach Europe.

Because they pass through multiple countries, migrants and refugees are constantly at risk of arrest for irregular entry. They therefore rely on brokers at each stage to find a safer path. However, in the harsh desert environment, when trucks break down and they are forced to walk, some run out of food and water or are abandoned by unscrupulous brokers and die. Governments and militaries may also block their routes. To stem the flow, Algeria expelled more than 13,000 migrants and refugees crossing the Sahara between 2016 and 2017. Even pregnant women and children were turned back without being given food or water.

Migrants traveling through the desert by truck (Photo: EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations /Flickr [ CC BY-SA 2.0])

Even upon reaching camps or other gathering places at staging points during the crossing, there is no guarantee of safety. They must endure unsanitary living conditions and constantly protect themselves from frequent robberies and sexual violence. In Libya, those arrested for irregular entry may be sold by militia operating detention centers to cooperating smugglers.

While guarding themselves against such dangers at staging points, they look for the next broker and work to gather the large sums demanded. Since they start with little money and are often charged unfair amounts by brokers, their stays at staging points tend to be prolonged. As low-wage day laborers doing physically demanding work, refugees and migrants are exploited as cheap labor; some never manage to earn enough to continue the journey and remain stuck working. There are also brokers who lure migrants and refugees with promises like “I’ll get you a good job in Europe,” only to detain them upon arrival and force women into prostitution.

Women refugees gathered at a camp in Niger (Photo: Oxfam International /Flickr [ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])

Even after finally reaching Libya, they need additional funds to cross the Mediterranean, meaning long-term work awaits them there as well. They also face a steady stream of abuses, including being placed under the control of militia commanders who operate detention centers, exploited, and sold into slavery, with such abuses occurring one after another. Videos have even circulated showing migrants and refugees being auctioned off in front of a crowd, reminiscent of the slave trade of the past, shocking the outside world.

In this way, migrants and refugees face mortal danger even before crossing the Mediterranean. Reaching Europe is almost a miracle.

The desert route isn’t just for refugees and migrants

Historically a major trade route, the Sahara is vast and inhospitable, and the countries bordering it have limited capacity to monitor, manage, and govern their territories and borders there. It tends to become a lawless zone. As a result, the region is not only a route for migrants and refugees but also an area where smuggling routes for drugs and tobacco from Africa to Europe and networks of armed groups and extremist organizations are intricately intertwined.

An Islamist extremist group moving along the Mauritania–Mali border (Photo: Magharebia /Flickr [ CC BY 2.0])

Given this backdrop, extremist groups active in the Sahel and elsewhere can hide and lie low, making the Sahara an environment conducive to terrorism. A notable example of a terrorist active in the Sahara is Mokhtar Belmokhtar. While using desert routes to smuggle weapons and cigarettes, he became one of the leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). After breaking away from AQIM, he is said to have been involved in multiple terror attacks, including the 2013 assault on a natural gas facility in eastern Algeria in which 37 foreign nationals were killed.

The U.S. military has established drone bases in Niger and elsewhere, while the French military has set up military bases near the Mali–Niger and Libyan borders, and conducts operations in the region, further heightening tensions.

Migrants and refugees traverse this tense route side by side with death.

A joint exercise between the Malian national army and the French army (Photo: Fred Marie /Flickr [ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])

Responses by countries and organizations

Given that migrants and refugees are suffering various life-threatening harms, how are the parties involved responding?

The African Union (AU) and the Libyan government, with funding from the EU Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF), launched the Voluntary Humanitarian Return (VHR) program in 2016 in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The program provides migrant registration, healthcare and relief assistance, psychosocial support, and promotes community stabilization projects. IOM has also arranged charter flights to return migrants and refugees from Libyan detention centers to their home countries, and between January and July 2018 safely returned 10,950 migrants and refugees to African countries. Beyond international organizations, the Nigerian government has also operated several charter flights for migrants and refugees who chose to return from Libya to Nigeria.

On the receiving end, Europe provides funding for initiatives such as the VHR program, but it is clear that its foremost priority is to reduce the number of incoming migrants and refugees as much as possible. For example, the EU proposed establishing asylum processing centers not in Europe but in Libya, where determinations on refugee status would be made, but this proposal was criticized for failing to take into account the harsh realities in Libya.

The vast expanse of the Sahara Desert (Photo: Carsten ten Brink /Flickr [ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])

Although more migrants and refugees are being assisted as various measures are implemented, they still represent only a tiny fraction of the whole. Protecting migrants and refugees and facilitating returns to their home countries are important, but unless the root causes are addressed, the problem will not be fundamentally solved. Amid a complex web of issues, without tackling cross-border armed conflicts, poverty, and the growing global inequality gap, this crisis will not subside.

Writer: Aya Inoue
Graphics: Hinako Hosokawa