Niger's 'gateway To The Desert' Open Again For Migrants

Agadez, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Jan, 2024) Their faces wrapped up against the sun and sand, they pile into the back of waiting pickup trucks in northern Niger ahead of a gruelling journey across the Sahara.

Hawkers of protective turbans, cigarettes and water sachets do the rounds in the hope of one last sale before the vehicles pull out of the main bus station headed for Libya.

Known as the gateway to the desert, the historic town of Agadez is again bustling as a key transit hub for migration.

Niger's military leaders who seized power in a July coup lost no time in repealing a law which criminalized the trafficking of migrants through the nation.

The November quashing of the 2015 legislation, which was unpopular and controversial for endangering the lives of migrants by pushing their transporters to illegal and unsafe roads, aims to make it easier for people to reach North Africa and eventually Europe.

It was also designed to kickstart the economy in a region plagued by weapons and drug traffickers.

"They're packed in like sardines," Aboubacar Halilou, one of those involved in the transportation, said.

"But it's our job, people need to go."