On the trail of Europe-bound migrants across Niger Republic

Our reporter has followed the movement of African migrants to Agadez, a town in Niger Republic bordering the Libyan desert, on their risky journey to get to Europe.  The tall, sturdy driver at the old Tashar Kuka bus station in the northern Nigerian city of Kano paced the short dusty road of the park that […]

Our reporter has followed the movement of African migrants to Agadez, a town in Niger Republic bordering the Libyan desert, on their risky journey to get to Europe. 
The tall, sturdy driver at the old Tashar Kuka bus station in the northern Nigerian city of Kano paced the short dusty road of the park that is covered by a network of shops, his face sparkling in the searing sun, as he looked out for passengers.
Alhaji Inuwa (we are not mentioning his real name for safety reasons), a citizen of Niger Republic, Nigeria’s neighbour to the north, had driven into the bus station about two hours earlier, carrying passengers from Zinder (Damagaram), Niger’s former capital, about three-hour drive from Kano.
He was now racing to get commuters to transport to Niger. His worrying was to start the return journey before the time for Friday prayers, as roads would be packed with worshippers. But getting the balance of five passengers for his 9-seater bus was proving difficult.
Tashar Kuka boasts one of the country’s major arteries to Niger Republic. Every day, dozens of vehicles shuttle between the commercial town of Kano and the city of Damagaram, ferrying goods and passengers.
Suddenly, a group of five travelers, each of them carrying a backpack and hand luggage, walked into the station. Surprisingly, however, none of the touts or the drivers swooped on them as they did other commuters.
They are Gwarawa, a kind of cargo that the drivers at Tashar Kuka would not risk carrying. They referred to them as Gwarawa, at the bus station, because of their inability to speak flawless Hausa. Every day, the motor park is thronged by migrants traveling to Europe through Agadez, in Niger Republic.
“We run into problems with the security agents whenever we carry them,” Inuwa said about the migrants. Recently, the police clamped down on smugglers at the park and arrested the park officials, he said.
But the travelers did not stop using Tashar Kuka as a take off point for the perilous journey to Europe, relying on smuggling rings.
“My son was in the business of carrying people from Zinder to Agadez, until he was arrested and jailed in Niger,” the driver said.
He believed that his son’s arrest had nothing to do with a bid to stop the smuggling of migrants by the authorities in his country, instead, he argued, the police arrested his son for not bribing them. “He disagreed with the police on what to pay as bribe to clear the way for him and the Gwarawa,” he said.
Allegations of bribe taking by the police and other security agents to allow Europe-bound migrants free passage through the country are rampant and Niger does not appear ready to halt the practice, because of the financial benefit accruing to the country from the trade. An anti-trafficking regulation that came into effect in the wake of the death of 92 migrants in 2013 in the desert, has not stopped the movement of persons across Niger’s borders, because of connivance by security officials in the lucrative business.
According to the UN Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), about 4,000 migrants pass through Agadez every week.  
Inuwa agreed that the trade is putting a lot of money in the hands of police officers and drivers alike. “Two years back, you would not dream of seeing junior police officers driving cars, but now if you follow the road to Agadez, you will see newly recruited policemen park their vehicles near their places of duty. They get a lot of money from Gwarawa. My son and other drivers also made fortunes from them,” he said.
The drivers levied “outrageous” amounts on the migrants, he said, to settle the security men on the road. “My friend carried 10 people from Kano to Zinder two days ago and charged each of them N10, 000. He collected N5000 in the name of settling the security personnel manning checkpoints along the way and another N5000 for himself. But the amount was exorbitant; that was exploitation. I would not collect a quarter of that amount, if I was to carry them,” he said. The normal transport fare for the same distance – Kano to Zinder – is N1,700.
As early as 3.30am the following day, Saeed Kazeem and his three co-travelers had joined queue to board the bus that was headed to Agadez at Rimbo Bus station in Zinder. The five Gwarawa that were turned back in Kano, were also around.
Kazeem and his teammates, two Nigerians and a Ghanaian, had taken their bathe at the bus station and readied themselves for the 9-hour journey to Agadez, from where a smuggler would arrange for their transportation to Libya, across the desert.  The Libya trip was due in two days, on a Monday. All of them were headed for Europe. Kazeem specifically wanted to go to Germany, where two of his friends, who had passed the same route, now live.
In the ancient city of Agadez, Kazeem and his friends would be received by a migrant-smuggler, who would accommodate and feed them, while they await their departure on the perilous journey through the desert.
But the first challenge they would be faced with would be coughing out enough money to bribe the police at the various checkpoints straddling the path to Agadez. Migrants are a goldmine in Niger and sighting them represent big money for police officers and local officials.
After arriving at the first checkpoint, just outskirts of Zinder, a police officer mounted the over 60-seater bus for a routine check. On getting to the back seats where Kazeem and the others sat, he flashed his torch in their faces and shouted at them to bring out their “papers.”  But all the four did not respond. The officer ordered them to get down. After about 20 minutes, they rejoined the bus, murmuring and protesting the exorbitant amount that each of them had given to the police.
After another encounter with security men at a checkpoint in Tarnout, some hours’ drive from Zinder, the four migrants again returned to the bus criticizing the Nigerien security officials for ridiculous corruption and extortion.
They claimed to have been asked to pay 10,000 francs each, before they were allowed to proceed on the trip. “Is it easy to raise 10,000 francs,” the Ghanaian, who was wearing a gown, said, raising his voice from his seat at the back of the vehicle. “These Nigerien security men are highly exploitative and corrupt. Why should they continue to extort large sums of money from me because I want to pass through their country to go to Libya? I have my International and ECOWAS passports, so I shouldn’t deserve this treatment.” he complained.
His grievance, however, did not go down well with a Nigerien, apparently the only person understanding English language among the Nigerien commuters. “You Nigerians are the ones delaying our journey, you should stop complaining,” the bearded man said. The Ghanaian replied that he was not a Nigerian, brandishing his black-covered Ghanaian passport to prove his point.
“If Niger wants money, it should find other means of getting it, not by exploiting us. We are ECOWAS citizens and should not be treated badly. I entered Nigeria through Lagos and traveled to Kano. The Nigerian immigration officials were different; they did not charge me more than 500 naira to stamp my passport at all their checkpoints. But these ones tell us that they are being thorough because of Boko Haram. Are Nigeriens also not members of Boko Haram?” he stated.
His outburst courted the anger of his Nigerien counterpart who warned to be careful about his choice of words. At this time, the three Nigerians supported the Ghanaian. “Yes, these Nigeriens are treating us as if we are not Africans,” one of them, seated near Kazeem, said.
Kazeem, about 30, lives from Surulere, in Lagos, but is originally from Kwara State, in the North-Central Nigeria.
He did not want to divulge much about his mission initially, preferring to state that he was bound for Libya, where he plans to work and raise money. But after a while, he opened up and gave a no-holds-barred narrative of his undertaking.
The Ghanaian, he disclosed, was the one leading the team, having traveled the route several times in the past. All of them had met in Lagos. Kazeem was not, however, a complete novice; he had once passed through Agdez to Libya, where he did menial jobs and raised the money he later invested in Nigeria.
After the business collapsed, he set on a new and ambitious plan to get to Germany, to get more money.
“The first time I went to Libya, I fixed tiles for new buildings. I did not go there to beg. I sent all the money I got home and when I returned to Nigeria, I later used it to start a business,” he said.
He claimed that his business was short-lived because of the hostile economic environment in Nigeria; the same problem often cited by migrants fleeing to Europe. “The Nigerian economy is not helping the poor and small businesses. Otherwise, why do we have to go through all this stress and insult and extortion to go to another country?”
Kazeem said he was looking forward to the treacherous journey across the desert with fear and hope, having been robbed by armed bandits operating in the Sahara during his first trip. The robbers, he recalled, ordered all the passengers on the convoy of over 100 vehicles to pay 5000 francs each or be killed.
“When I remember that incident, I get scared of the desert. It is a highly risky enterprise I’m going into and it scares me. What if they had killed me and left the body in the Sahara? Would anyone have found out?” he asked, before continuing defiantly, “But I will go and cross the desert because I will not allow fears to retard my progress in life. After all, everything about life is risky.” He said the trip through the desert was going to last for four days.
“And it is better for me to face the danger than to stay in Nigeria and steal,” he stated proudly.
Beyond the dangers in the desert, Kazeem’s mind was fixed on the prospects of a new and befitting life in Germany, an obsession he got from news of a rosy experience from his friends.
“They traveled with their wives and got German citizenships after bearing children there,” he said, counting them as very lucky. “Every month, they receive €300 each from the German government.”     
If he traveled with his wife, she could be raped or abducted by the bandits, he feared and left her in Lagos, according to him. “When we were robbed, everybody was scared, because we had all heard stories of kidnappings and rapes by the bandits,” he added.
In Libya, Kazeem hopes to find a work to gather money to proceed with another dangerous part of the journey – crossing the Mediterranean Sea.
Recently, hundreds of migrants have drowned attempting to cross the sea to Europe in rickety boats.
The toll does not affect Kazeem’s decision anyway. “There are suitable times to cross the sea, when the water is calm,” Kazeem said, to downplay the impression that boat mishaps were a daily occurrence in the Mediterranean. “If you go into the sea when the tides are high, your boat stands the risk of capsizing and you may die,” he said. 
After the bus pulled at another checkpoint near the last town before Agadez, the security agents held Kazeem and the three other migrants for a long time. The driver, unwilling to continue waiting, drove off with their luggage in the bus and left them behind. Hours after, they emerged from another bus at the last checkpoint before Agadez.
Kazeem promised to take me to the compound where he was going to stay and introduce me to his smuggling agent. However, the police officers at Agadez held me at the checkpoint, after raising questions about my papers.
Human smuggling is a money-spinning business in the ancient city of Agadez, which is now referred to as “the smugglers capital.” Compounds for housing migrants scattered all over the city.  “To give you a conservative figure, over 10 compounds are spread around Agadez,” Ali, a driver said.
“The smugglers either built or rented houses to accommodate the migrants and look after them the moment they arrive Zinder. They bribe the security agents on the road until the people come to Agadez. At the checkpoint outside the city, the smugglers will settle the police and convey the migrants in their vehicles to the compounds,” the driver, who was in the business of transporting migrants across the desert, said.      
“The trip is arranged by these smugglers who accommodate the migrants, feed them and book tickets for them for the journey through the desert. No one can travel if he or she does pass through a smuggler. A smuggler can house 100 migrants, 20 or 10,” Ali added.
Niger’s anti-trafficking law provides stiff punishment, with smugglers liable to being sentenced to 30 years in prison. But Ali argued that the new law was only in theory, stating that the security agents with the power to enforce it “are on the payroll of the smugglers.”
“The smugglers are never arrested. There was the time the government banned smuggling of non-Nigeriens out of the country, but the smugglers continued to operate. The smugglers are known, but they are not arrested,” he said.
According to him, smuggling of humans was a booming business that not only the security forces, but also the residents of the city would not want to be stopped. “The whole of Agadez is benefitting immensely from the smuggling business; it is bringing money to the smuggling agents, the security personnel, the transporters and the food vendors as well as other businesses. If migrants die in the desert, nobody cares in Agadez, life continues in the city as though no tragedy has happened. But if you stop the migrants from coming, all the town will be in mourning,” he said.
When he was still in the business, drivers collect N3500 from the smugglers to transport a single migrant to a desert town of Dirkou and Ali’s truck was carrying 100 to 120 migrants. But now, he said, the drivers use smaller Toyota Hilux vehicles that were faster and rugged and they charge N33,000 per migrant, while the smugglers charged each passenger between N50,000 and N60,000.
“If they are not lucky, they can be robbed by bandits operating in the desert. Anyone that dies on the way is buried in the desert. The Sahara desert is hot and dry and has no single tree or shade, with open field extending hundreds of kilometers. You can see 10 kilometres of open desert ahead of you. If a vehicle breaks down and is not fixed before the travelers run out of water supply or another vehicle does not stop by to give them water or evacuate some of them, all of them face a certain death,” he said.
“I was robbed twice by bandits in the desert while transporting migrants. The first attack was on my way going and the second was during a return trip. They collected all our valuables. They stole all our money and even robbed us of our sleeping mats. If they find women on the convoys, they will take them behind the rocks and rape them,” he said.
Another police checkpoint separates Agadez from the desert. Ali said smugglers also paid large sums of money at the post to clear their human cargoes. 
Ibrahim Khalil Danshagamu, a Nigerian who followed the Sahara route to Libya via Algeria in 1989, said the criminal activities in the desert were not common to bandits alone, recalling that security officials were also abducting and raping migrants. “The wife of a Ghanaian migrant was snatched from the truck we were traveling in by Arab soldiers in our presence,” he recollected.
“Three people, including a lady from Ghana, died on the way. There were about 60 of us on that trip. The Algerian security forces worked in cahoots with the smugglers, but Niger’s connivance was the worst, because the security men aided the smugglers up to Asamaka (a Nigerien border post before Algeria), where they allowed the migrants to use the building at the post rest, eat and change before they move on,” he added.
But Kazeem argued that all the trouble to get to Europe will count only if the mission fails. “When I get to Germany, I will not be talking about the hazard. It is going to be a non-issue certainly. I will be focusing on my new life and what it is going to give me,” he said, smiling at the prospect.