Migrants brave Sahara desert to reach Europe

TAMANRASSET, Algeria, Aug 16: Amid a moonscape of dust, dry river beds and huge stone monoliths, an ageing truck creaks to a halt in the middle of the world's biggest desert.

At the impromptu police checkpoint, Algerian officers in green uniforms shoulder their rifles and kick sand from their boots as they approach the vehicle and examine its cargo compartment.

In seconds, two men in ragged clothes and flip-flops clamber out, standing warily on the oven-hot sands of the Sahara as they submit to a body search and a battery of questions.

They look tense, and for good reason. They are migrants from sub-Saharan Africa whose quest to reach a better life in Europe and help support their families back home has just collapsed.

The youthful pair are among the many thousands who set out to cross Africa's biggest wilderness each year, just as desperate to flee poverty as the better-known migrants leaving by sea for the Canary islands from Senegal or Mauritania.

That they should brave bandits, prison, the furnace of the Sahara and con-men offering dubious ''people smuggling'' help is not perhaps surprising: the available evidence shows that many, despite the obstacles, get through.

A July 2006 report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said that at least 200,000 Africans enter Europe clandestinely every year, while another 100,000 try but are intercepted and countless others try but lose their way or their lives.

HUMILIATION

The sub-Saharan pair at the Algerian police post have not been lucky this time. The men -- one gives his name as Moman Mnyeru -- have no identification papers and the police reject their story that they want to work in Algeria. They are immediately arrested.

It is a moment of deep humiliation: Mnyeru starts to weep.

''Stop crying,'' says the arresting officer. ''Don't worry, we're going to look after you. You'll be fed and lodged -- then we'll send you back to your country.'' The pair are taken to Tamanrasset, 1,800 km south of the capital Algiers, the closest major town to the Niger and Mali borders and a regular transit town for migrants.

Although the pair will not say which country they are from, they clearly fall into the less fortunate of two main groups of migrants seeking to get to Europe: those from the very poorest African countries, like Mali, who must forge links with people smugglers as they move stage by stage northwards.

''These (connections) can be extremely hazardous, as the migrants are bargaining from a position of extreme weakness,'' the U.N. report said. ''Exposure generally means detention in North Africa, an experience many migrant testimonies portray as extremely grim.'' The other main group of migrants is from wealthier African countries like Nigeria -- they are able to afford complex services provided by criminal gangs such as false documents, transport, accommodation and bribery of border officials.

The gangs, often West African in origin, boast the skills to get migrants to Europe in one go. Experts' estimates of the annual worth of this market are around 300 million dollar.

In Tamanrasset, many migrants owe their presence to truck drivers who are paid 25 dollar to get them in from Niger or Mali.

The most desperate here may have even dared an almost suicidal attempt to walk across the Sahara.

The lucky ones got rides with motorists or desert nomads, who can defend themselves against prosecution by arguing that had they not acted, the migrants would certainly have died. The unlucky surely do perish.

In Tamanrasset, migrants who have grown cautious after repeated attempts to move hang around, waiting for a more organised way of getting north.

''We keep trying because maybe, one day, with God's help, we'll get through. So we have to keep coming back,'' said one sub-Saharan African who has spent 10 years in the oasis city.

GHETTO

In recent years the town of 70,000 has seen a blossoming of markets run by immigrant communities who have given up dreams of Europe and work as cobblers and petty traders.

In one outlying ghetto, where police rarely patrol, forged papers and lifts to the north are for sale.

Life as an ''illegal'' in Tamanrasset is hard. The town has welcomed travellers from the south for centuries. But in recent years, the atmosphere has changed.

''Right now, it's our own African brothers, our own Algerian brothers who are hunting us,'' said a man in robes and a skullcap, who did not want to give his name.

''They say we don't have the right to live here in Algeria because we're Africans. What do they mean? They are also Africans ... If they're European, then they should go back home to Europe.'' The man, who declined to give his name, was among several dozen sub-Saharan Africans sheltering under the Guetaa El Oued bridge on the outskirts of town, a gathering place chosen as it is a vantage point from which to spot police patrols.

Police dismiss complaints of ill-treatment.

''People are well treated,'' said police Colonel Mohamed Ben Bachir. ''When they arrive they are well fed. Even those among them who are sick are treated in our health system, maybe that encourages them to come back -- that's what it seems.''

Reuters