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Rabat- In what some local media outlets have compared to the fury that led young Iranians to take the American embassy hostage in 1979, dozens of angry deported Malian migrants recently stormed the Algerian embassy in Bamako, attacking the building with stones and leaving the building in ruins.
The incident is said to be a follow up of the expulsion of 94 Malian migrants from Algerian territory last week. Armed with stones and some other metallic materials, the angry deported migrants took out their anger, fury, and frustration at the North African country’s diplomatic representation in their country, hoping that this desperate act would send signals as to what the general mood is regarding Algeria’s mistreatment of sub-Saharan migrants.
According to reports, constant police patrols and administrative humiliations are not the only things that sub-Saharan migrants suffer from in Algeria. Some of them—generally Guineans, Malians, Nigeriens, Ivoirians.—are said to be “thrown to the desert”: abandoned in no-man’s land of militia and terrorist groups in the desert between Mali and Algeria.
Some of the expelled Malian migrants have confirmed this fate. Despite overwhelming criticism at the inhumanity of Algeria’s policy vis-à-vis sub-Saharan migrants, the North African country is nowhere near ready to mend its ways, and maintains its harsh and repellent migration policy, especially towards sub-Saharans.
Last week, another 120 individuals were stranded in Bordj Badji Mokhtar, forced to walk 2 days before reaching Malian provinces. The incident at the Algerian embassy in Bamako, incensed protesters to make a statement that Africa and the AU should have made to Algerian officials long ago: membership in the continental union demands that fellow Africans be treated with respect and dignity.
