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Suppression of Movement
Migration Control, Manufactured Precarity and Racialised Border Regimes in Post-Hirak Algeria: In the Name of Sovereignty, at the Service of Rent Accumulation
“We today can do everything, so long as we do not imitate Europe, so long as we are not obsessed by the desire to catch up with Europe. Europe now lives at such a mad, reckless pace that she has shaken off all guidance and all reason, and she is running headlong into the abyss; we would do well to avoid it with all possible speed.”
Frantz Fanon, 1961
In recent years, Algerian authorities have substantially tightened their (anti-)migration policies. Pushbacks to Tunisia and mass expulsions to Niger were expanded while the state is deporting more and more people to Libya and to Morocco. The image of a prosperous ‘New Algeria’, propagated by the post-Hirak regime, is, meanwhile, strongly contradicted by the increasing number of Algerian harraga who are once again favoring the risks of a clandestine migration over remaining in the country.
In the past, Algeria, unlike neighboring countries, was considered extremely reluctant to formally integrate into the European border regime, near-consistently refusing to take part in Europe-funded ‘border management’ projects. Under President Abdelmajid Tebboune and army chief Said Chengriha, however, the state initiated a cautious turnaround and intensified its (anti-)migration cooperation with Germany, Italy, IOM and the Arab League, mostly in regards to police training and deportation cooperation.
The state’s reprisals against the harga, the manufactured precarity of thousands of people and the widespread racism (re-)produced by the state and large parts of society are, however, in stark contrast to Algeria’s anti-imperialist past. The state maintains a political imagery nurtured by the spirit of the post-colonial Algeria of the 1960s and 70s. Yet, de facto, only traces of this once staunch alignment with the Global South remain. The international solidarity occasionally vocalised by the Algerian state is today a conditional and selective one, driven by the regime’s internal tug-of-war over access to the hydrocarbon revenues and, at best, the “anti-imperialist strategies” of foreign policy.
Migration control has turned into an ever-present subject of public discourses and government interventions across northern Africa. Corresponding matters in Algeria, however, remain strongly unreported. Accordingly, this report aims at contributing to bridge this gap by providing a mapping of the state’s crackdowns against Algerian and non-Algerian harraga, the authorities’ retention infrastructure, the security services’ deportation practices, and Algeria’s engagement with foreign governments regarding the suppression of movement. In particular relevant in this regard are Algeria’s cooperation with Tunisia, Libya, Italy, Germany as well as with IOM, UNHCR and the Arab League and its ‘scientific body’, the Riyadh-based Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS).
Suppression of Movement
Migration Control, Manufactured Precarity and Racialised Border Regimes in Post-Hirak Algeria: In the Name of Sovereignty, at the Service of Rent Accumulation
“We today can do everything, so long as we do not imitate Europe, so long as we are not obsessed by the desire to catch up with Europe. Europe now lives at such a mad, reckless pace that she has shaken off all guidance and all reason, and she is running headlong into the abyss; we would do well to avoid it with all possible speed.”
Frantz Fanon, 1961
In recent years, Algerian authorities have substantially tightened their (anti-)migration policies. Pushbacks to Tunisia and mass expulsions to Niger were expanded while the state is deporting more and more people to Libya and to Morocco. The image of a prosperous ‘New Algeria’, propagated by the post-Hirak regime, is, meanwhile, strongly contradicted by the increasing number of Algerian harraga who are once again favoring the risks of a clandestine migration over remaining in the country.
In the past, Algeria, unlike neighboring countries, was considered extremely reluctant to formally integrate into the European border regime, near-consistently refusing to take part in Europe-funded ‘border management’ projects. Under President Abdelmajid Tebboune and army chief Said Chengriha, however, the state initiated a cautious turnaround and intensified its (anti-)migration cooperation with Germany, Italy, IOM and the Arab League, mostly in regards to police training and deportation cooperation.
The state’s reprisals against the harga, the manufactured precarity of thousands of people and the widespread racism (re-)produced by the state and large parts of society are, however, in stark contrast to Algeria’s anti-imperialist past. The state maintains a political imagery nurtured by the spirit of the post-colonial Algeria of the 1960s and 70s. Yet, de facto, only traces of this once staunch alignment with the Global South remain. The international solidarity occasionally vocalised by the Algerian state is today a conditional and selective one, driven by the regime’s internal tug-of-war over access to the hydrocarbon revenues and, at best, the “anti-imperialist strategies” of foreign policy.
Migration control has turned into an ever-present subject of public discourses and government interventions across northern Africa. Corresponding matters in Algeria, however, remain strongly unreported. Accordingly, this report aims at contributing to bridge this gap by providing a mapping of the state’s crackdowns against Algerian and non-Algerian harraga, the authorities’ retention infrastructure, the security services’ deportation practices, and Algeria’s engagement with foreign governments regarding the suppression of movement. In particular relevant in this regard are Algeria’s cooperation with Tunisia, Libya, Italy, Germany as well as with IOM, UNHCR and the Arab League and its ‘scientific body’, the Riyadh-based Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS).
Suppression of Movement
Migration Control, Manufactured Precarity and Racialised Border Regimes in Post-Hirak Algeria: In the Name of Sovereignty, at the Service of Rent Accumulation
“We today can do everything, so long as we do not imitate Europe, so long as we are not obsessed by the desire to catch up with Europe. Europe now lives at such a mad, reckless pace that she has shaken off all guidance and all reason, and she is running headlong into the abyss; we would do well to avoid it with all possible speed.”
Frantz Fanon, 1961
In recent years, Algerian authorities have substantially tightened their (anti-)migration policies. Pushbacks to Tunisia and mass expulsions to Niger were expanded while the state is deporting more and more people to Libya and to Morocco. The image of a prosperous ‘New Algeria’, propagated by the post-Hirak regime, is, meanwhile, strongly contradicted by the increasing number of Algerian harraga who are once again favoring the risks of a clandestine migration over remaining in the country.
In the past, Algeria, unlike neighboring countries, was considered extremely reluctant to formally integrate into the European border regime, near-consistently refusing to take part in Europe-funded ‘border management’ projects. Under President Abdelmajid Tebboune and army chief Said Chengriha, however, the state initiated a cautious turnaround and intensified its (anti-)migration cooperation with Germany, Italy, IOM and the Arab League, mostly in regards to police training and deportation cooperation.
The state’s reprisals against the harga, the manufactured precarity of thousands of people and the widespread racism (re-)produced by the state and large parts of society are, however, in stark contrast to Algeria’s anti-imperialist past. The state maintains a political imagery nurtured by the spirit of the post-colonial Algeria of the 1960s and 70s. Yet, de facto, only traces of this once staunch alignment with the Global South remain. The international solidarity occasionally vocalised by the Algerian state is today a conditional and selective one, driven by the regime’s internal tug-of-war over access to the hydrocarbon revenues and, at best, the “anti-imperialist strategies” of foreign policy.
Migration control has turned into an ever-present subject of public discourses and government interventions across northern Africa. Corresponding matters in Algeria, however, remain strongly unreported. Accordingly, this report aims at contributing to bridge this gap by providing a mapping of the state’s crackdowns against Algerian and non-Algerian harraga, the authorities’ retention infrastructure, the security services’ deportation practices, and Algeria’s engagement with foreign governments regarding the suppression of movement. In particular relevant in this regard are Algeria’s cooperation with Tunisia, Libya, Italy, Germany as well as with IOM, UNHCR and the Arab League and its ‘scientific body’, the Riyadh-based Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS).
Suppression of Movement
Migration Control, Manufactured Precarity and Racialised Border Regimes in Post-Hirak Algeria: In the Name of Sovereignty, at the Service of Rent Accumulation
“We today can do everything, so long as we do not imitate Europe, so long as we are not obsessed by the desire to catch up with Europe. Europe now lives at such a mad, reckless pace that she has shaken off all guidance and all reason, and she is running headlong into the abyss; we would do well to avoid it with all possible speed.”
Frantz Fanon, 1961
In recent years, Algerian authorities have substantially tightened their (anti-)migration policies. Pushbacks to Tunisia and mass expulsions to Niger were expanded while the state is deporting more and more people to Libya and to Morocco. The image of a prosperous ‘New Algeria’, propagated by the post-Hirak regime, is, meanwhile, strongly contradicted by the increasing number of Algerian harraga who are once again favoring the risks of a clandestine migration over remaining in the country.
In the past, Algeria, unlike neighboring countries, was considered extremely reluctant to formally integrate into the European border regime, near-consistently refusing to take part in Europe-funded ‘border management’ projects. Under President Abdelmajid Tebboune and army chief Said Chengriha, however, the state initiated a cautious turnaround and intensified its (anti-)migration cooperation with Germany, Italy, IOM and the Arab League, mostly in regards to police training and deportation cooperation.
The state’s reprisals against the harga, the manufactured precarity of thousands of people and the widespread racism (re-)produced by the state and large parts of society are, however, in stark contrast to Algeria’s anti-imperialist past. The state maintains a political imagery nurtured by the spirit of the post-colonial Algeria of the 1960s and 70s. Yet, de facto, only traces of this once staunch alignment with the Global South remain. The international solidarity occasionally vocalised by the Algerian state is today a conditional and selective one, driven by the regime’s internal tug-of-war over access to the hydrocarbon revenues and, at best, the “anti-imperialist strategies” of foreign policy.
Migration control has turned into an ever-present subject of public discourses and government interventions across northern Africa. Corresponding matters in Algeria, however, remain strongly unreported. Accordingly, this report aims at contributing to bridge this gap by providing a mapping of the state’s crackdowns against Algerian and non-Algerian harraga, the authorities’ retention infrastructure, the security services’ deportation practices, and Algeria’s engagement with foreign governments regarding the suppression of movement. In particular relevant in this regard are Algeria’s cooperation with Tunisia, Libya, Italy, Germany as well as with IOM, UNHCR and the Arab League and its ‘scientific body’, the Riyadh-based Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS).
