Report: Europe complicit in policies by North African countries to dump migrants in the Sahara

A joint investigation by international media outlets including the Washington Post claims the European Union and individual European countries are supporting and financing operations by  North African countries to “detain tens of thousands of migrants each year and dump them in remote areas, often barren deserts” to prevent them from coming to the EU.

The report said the operations were “"run thanks to money, vehicles, equipment, intelligence and security forces provided by the EU and European countries".

The report said refugees and migrants in Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia were being "apprehended based on the colour of their skin, loaded onto buses and driven to the middle of nowhere, often arid desert areas", without water or food. 

Others reportedly were taken to border areas where they were allegedly "sold by the authorities to human traffickers and gangs who torture them for ransom".

The 27-nation EU has struck deals with Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania with explicit financing to discourage irregular migration to Europe.

Between 2015 and 2021, the EU gave more than 400 million Euros to the three countries under its largest migration fund, the E.U. Emergency Trust Fund for Africa.

According to the report, senior officials in Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania denied racial profiling and the dumping of migrants in remote areas.