A/HRC/41/38/Add.1 rights violations against migrants in Libya, the Niger has become a transit country for migrants expelled or forced to return from Algeria and Libya. 31 47. Due to its limited capacities, since 2014 the Government of the Niger has relied largely on IOM to address the situation of non-Nigerien migrants who have either been expelled from Algeria, rescued in the desert or forced to return from other neighbouring countries such as Libya and Mali. In this regard, the IOM assisted voluntary return programme, which aims at assisting States to address the practicalities of the return process, constitutes a central component of Nigerien migration management policy. Between 2015 and 2018, 27,821 (14,977 in 2018) non-Nigerien migrants were returned to their countries of origin as part of the IOM programme. 48. In the case of non-Nigerien migrants expelled from Algeria, IOM community mobilizers in Assamaka and Arlit inform them about their options and rights, namely to continue their migration journey, to receive assistance from IOM to return to their countries of origin, to be referred to UNHCR 32 or to remain in the Niger as ECOWAS citizens or asylum seekers. Those who sign up for the IOM assisted voluntary return programme receive the necessary administrative, logistical and reintegration support for their return to their countries of origin (e.g., shelter, food, medical and psychosocial assistance, travel and identity documents, and transport). Out of the 20,056 migrants profiled at IOM transit centres in the Niger in 2018, 16,396 signed up for return while the rest chose other options. 49. During his visit the Special Rapporteur talked to numerous men, women and children in IOM transit centres in Agadez and Niamey who had signed up for the assisted voluntary return programme. Some of them indicated that they could no longer endure the human rights violations they had been subjected to during their migration journey – such as racial discrimination, arbitrary arrest, torture, collective expulsion and sexual and labour exploitation – and the difficult situation in the transit centres, and they wished to return to their countries of origin. Others indicated that they had signed up for assisted voluntary return because it was the only assistance offered to them, and many of them conceded that as soon as they returned to their countries of origin, they would try to remigrate. 50. IOM states that its assisted voluntary return programme is based on voluntary return, defined by (a) the absence of physical or psychological pressure to enrol in the programme and (b) an informed decision, that is, a decision based on timely, unbiased and reliable information. However, the Special Rapporteur notes that when there are no sufficiently valid alternatives to assisted voluntary return (e.g., through the facilitation of temporary permits or permanent residence, accompanied by relevant administrative, logistic and financial support) the return can hardly be qualified as voluntary (A/HRC/38/41, para. 30). 51. Moreover, while IOM transit centres are open and migrants can leave at any time, the main condition for accommodation in the centres is a willingness to return voluntarily, 33 and there are no other alternatives in the Niger for migrants who are in need of assistance, including shelter and food. The free consent to voluntary return is therefore undermined by the pressure exerted by extremely hazardous weather, living and travel conditions on migrants in vulnerable situations, who are physically and mentally exhausted by gruelling journeys and by the human rights violations that they have suffered in Algeria and Libya, which in the latter case include torture and sexual and gendered crimes. 52. Furthermore, signing up for an assisted voluntary return programme cannot override the fact that most of these migrants and their families are first and foremost victims of illegal expulsions from Algeria, contrary to fundamental principles of international law. The Special Rapporteur also noted the lack of statistics on the number of returned migrants 31 32 33 12 See OHCHR and the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Desperate and Dangerous: Report on the Human Rights Situation of Migrants and Refugees in Libya (20 December 2018). In 2018, IOM made 23 referrals to UNHCR, based on the standard operating procedures adopted by both agencies in 2016 for the identification and referral of asylum seekers. See www.refworld.org/pdfid/57fde5cf4.pdf (in French). See www.nigermigrationresponse.org/en/Our-work/iom-transit-centers.