Niger tells Europe it needs 1b euros to fight illegal migration

Niger, a major transit country for Africans seeking to reach the EU, told foreign ministers visiting from Europe on Tuesday it needs 1 billion euros to combat illegal migration. As many as 150,000 migrants, most coming from other West African nations, will travel through Niger this year, crossing the Sahara Desert on their way to […]

Niger, a major transit country for Africans seeking to reach the EU, told foreign ministers visiting from Europe on Tuesday it needs 1 billion euros to combat illegal migration.
As many as 150,000 migrants, most coming from other West African nations, will travel through Niger this year, crossing the Sahara Desert on their way to the Mediterranean coast, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). A vast landlocked country, Niger borders Nigeria in the south and Libya to north – from whose coast many migrants set off on the perilous sea journey to EU members Italy or Malta. “Niger needs a billion euros to fight against clandestine migration,” Foreign Minister Ibrahim Yacoubou told a news conference in Niger’s capital, flanked by his French and German counterparts Jean-Marc Ayrault and Frank-Walter Steinmeier.