Who is Alarme Phone Sahara?

Alarme Phone Sahara (APS) is a cooperation project between associations, groups and individuals in the Sahel-Saharan region and Europe. The members of the Alarme Phone Sahara network are based in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Morocco, Germany and Austria. Alarme Phone Sahara's office is located in Agadez, Niger, which is a crossroads of migration in the Sahelo-Saharan zone. There is also a network of whistleblowers in the region that works in collaboration with the Agadez office.

The objectives of Alarme Phone Sahara (APS)

  • Sensitize migrants and migration candidates to the conditions and dangers of desert travel in the Sahelo-Saharan zone.
  • Sensitize migrants and migration candidates to know their rights.
  • Document and make visible what is actually happening on migration routes in the Sahel-Saharan zone, including crimes, human rights violations and road harassment suffered by migrants.
  • Rescue migrants in distress in the desert.
  • Denounce regional, sub-regional, national and international policies that endanger the lives of migrants and seek to violate the right to freedom of movement.

Integral approach of Alarme Phone Sahara:

  1. Raise awareness - Share information with migrants and candidates for migration on the conditions and risks of the journey and also information on support structures accessible to migrants. Alarme Phone Sahara respects people's choice to decide whether or not to migrate - but APS helps to empower people to make their decisions based on reliable information.
  2. Document - Share with the international public, in Africa, Europe and elsewhere, news, reports and testimonies on the realities of migration routes in the Sahelo-Saharan zone. Document cases of accidents and deaths of migrants in the desert and also cases of violations, crimes, refoulements and repression perpetrated against migrants. Also share reports and analyses on migration policy developments and migration management in the Sahelo-Saharan zone.
  3. Rescue - Alarm Phone Sahara helps to rescue migrants in distress on desert routes. At present, backup resources are limited. So people's relief activities are carried out only in the desert of the Agadez region of Niger. To help rescue people in distress in the desert, Alarme Phone Sahara maintains a toll-free telephone number and whistleblower structure in the Agadez area. In case of distress, according to the means available, Alarme Phone Sahara alerts people within reach of the place or, if necessary, official rescue structures.

The mission of Alarme Phone Sahara

Alarme Phone Sahara's mission is dedicated particularly to migrants in the Sahel-Saharan zone and generally to all migrants around the world. It is committed to the respect of the rights of all migrants and refugees and to the free movement of all persons with their property. Alarme Phone Sahara supports humanitarian and sustainable development that facilitates the free choice for all people to stay where they live or to leave, depending on their needs. In this sense, Alarme Phone Sahara denounces any kind of policy that seeks to violate freedom of movement and to stop or curb migration by force.

Alarme Phone Sahara's approach is humanitarian and supportive

The members of the Alarme Phone Sahara network share universally recognized human rights values. They are in solidarity and recognize the right to life, freedom of movement, respect for the physical and moral integrity of the human person and equality between human beings.

Alarme Phone Sahara is characterized by its humanitarian approach and responsible commitment, based on activism. The initiative is politically independent and non-denominational. Alarme Phone Sahara acts with and for the most vulnerable, migrants are actors and decision-makers in their lives, they are free to make their own choices and to commit themselves to their futures. APS therefore develops first aid structures and provides means of obtaining information. APS works in a spirit of cooperation, it does not create definitive solutions, but it builds the capacity of local goodwill to improve the situation of African migrants in the Sahel-Saharan zone by enforcing their rights and human values and even saving their lives. Effective action can only be achieved by working together.