Angola’s anti-migrant campaign

During the last few days Angolan security forces have arrested and arbitrarily detained several African nationals who they also subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment in serious violations of migrants’ human rights, according to several human rights organisations

The Angolan authorities have embarked upon a new fight against clandestine immigration that is becoming more like a migrants ‘manhunt’. In the last ten days, 3,000 people have been rounded up in the streets of Luanda. Non-Angolan Africans are violently arrested in the streets, in their homes and at work and taken to the detention centre in Trinita, 30 km from Luanda. Some are forcibly repatriated. They are kept in cruel, inhumane, humiliating, and degrading conditions. They are crammed into tiny cells and deprived of both water and food. Some pregnant women (two of whom are from Mali and Guinea) had to give birth in these deplorable conditions. Acts of torture and extortion of money have also been reported.

Immigrants in Angola, especially people from West Africa, have been subject to repeated attacks, stigmatization and violations of their human rights. The arrests may be linked to ethnic and religious discrimination, since the main group targeted is largely composed of Muslims from Guinea, Mauritania, Mali and Senegal. Witnesses reported that mosques were surrounded by the Immigration Services on Friday, 19 December 2014.