By: Danielle L. Gwozdz
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Africa

NIAMEY, Niger – Officials in Niger have arrested 127 migrants as they attempted to cross the Sahara into Algeria.

Niger lies on a major migrant route between sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.

The migrants were reportedly caught as they were leaving the northern town of Arlit before dawn in five vehicles.

The migrants, mostly men, with some women and few children, are believed to be from Nigeria and Niger.

This arrest comes after 92 migrants were found to have died of thirst after two trucks broke down carrying them across the Sahara.

The government announced on Friday a plan to close illegal camps in Northern Niger, which are referred to as “ghettos,” and said those involved in trafficking migrants would be “severely punished.”

Niger has said that migrants found in illegal camps will be handed over to international aid agencies.

On Wednesday, bodies of 52 children, 33 women, and 7 men were found dead after an attempt to cross the Sahara. The country has been holding three days of mourning over the bodies. Another 5 from the same convoy had been found several days earlier by the army.

The government has said in its statement on Friday that the tragedy was the result of criminal activities led by all types of trafficking networks.

About 5,000 African migrants are said to be currently stranded in illegal camps in the northern town of Agadez, alone.

Most of the migrants have paid large sums of money to be moved. They are waiting to cross the hundreds of kilometers of desert into Libya or Algeria, from where they can take boats to Europe in hope of a better life.

Many people emigrate to flee poverty in Niger, ranked by the United Nations as the least developed country on earth. Some work in neighboring Libya and Algeria to save money before returning home.

More than 32,000 people have arrived in southern Europe from Africa so far last year.

More than 500 are believed to have died in two shipwrecks off southern Italy this month.

For more information, please visit:

BBC News – Sahara deaths: Niger ‘arrests’ 127 departing migrants – 2 November 2013
Librepensa – Sahara deaths: Niger ‘arrests’ 127 departing migrants – 2 November 2013
Wordpress – Sahara deaths: Niger ‘arrests’ 127 departing migrants – 2 November 2013
Bangalore Wishesh – Niger arrests 150 migrants in crackdown after Sahara deaths – Daily News & Analysis – 2 November 2013
The Herald Scotland – 127 migrants arrested as they tried to cross the deadly Sahara – 3 November 2013