How Africa
Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelkader Messahel said illegal immigration was a “threat to national security”. Another senior Algerian official had recently associated migrants with crime.
During an international workshop on the fight against terrorism on 10 July, Abdelkader Messahel, Algerian Foreign Minister, expressed his concern about illegal immigration in his country.
“[The Algerian government is] in the process of taking urgent measures to deal with this large flow of illegal migrants behind which organized networks are hiding and which poses a threat to national security,” he told the media Algerians on the sidelines of the meeting.
Referring to African illegal immigration and the possibility of terrorists infiltrating migrants, he pointed out that 5,000 Africans were part of terrorist groups in the world, which he described as “enormous numbers”.
© Stringer Source: AFP“[The threat] emanates from an organized mafia including Algerians who supervise the operations of clandestine migration to Algeria, after the closure of Libyan access due to the presence of foreign forces and representatives of the International Organization For migration (IOM), “said Abdelkader Messahel.
The remarks of the head of the diplomacy followed a few days those of Ahmed Ouyahia , minister of state and head of cabinet of the Algerian president, who had associated migrants with crime.
“These illegal aliens bring crime, drugs and several other plagues,” he said, attracting the wrath of human rights organizations.
