Rape of a Migrant Child Exposes the Precarious Reality Facing Migrants in Algeria

🗓️ Published on: 29/09/2025

The Trade Union Confederation of Productive Forces (COSYFOP) expresses its deep shock and grave concern over a scandalous video circulating on social media, which shows a young migrant girl from Mali being raped by an Algerian citizen in the city of Oum El Bouaghi. This horrific crime, which only came to light thanks to surveillance cameras, is yet another stark reminder of the precarious legal and humanitarian conditions endured by thousands of migrants in Algeria.

Systematic Failure of Protection and Escalating Abuses

The Oum El Bouaghi case is not an isolated tragedy—it is the direct result of the Algerian authorities’ systematic failure to protect migrants. For years, migrant women from Sub-Saharan Africa have been subjected to sexual assaults, harassment, and exploitation, while the government has turned a blind eye. Algeria has no effective laws to safeguard migrants, no policies to ensure their social integration, and no political will to confront these crimes. By refusing to act, the authorities are not only abandoning victims to repeated abuse, but also openly violating their international obligations under human rights and labor conventions.

International Inaction that Fuels Impunity

Despite COSYFOP’s continuous engagement with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants for several months, no concrete action has been taken. The UN mechanisms have failed to respond with the urgency that this crisis demands. This passivity amounts to complicity: by remaining silent, the international community is emboldening perpetrators, allowing crimes to be repeated, and paving the way for an even deeper humanitarian catastrophe that threatens the lives and dignity of migrants in Algeria.

Immediate Measures Required

The Algerian government must:

• Immediately open an independent judicial investigation into the Oum El Bouaghi crime and bring the perpetrator to justice without delay.
• Immediately open an independent judicial investigation into the Oum El Bouaghi crime and bring the perpetrator to justice without delay.
• Adopt binding national legislation that explicitly prohibits discrimination and criminalizes all forms of violence, exploitation, and harassment against migrants.
• Implement a genuine integration policy that ensures migrants’ economic, social, and cultural rights, as required under Algeria’s international obligations.
• At the same time, the United Nations mechanisms must stop turning a blind eye. The Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants is expected to act decisively, not remain silent in the face of systematic violations.

No Change Without Collective Action

For COSYFOP, the case of the young Malian girl is a grave warning that cannot be ignored. Unless these violations are confronted decisively and without delay, the situation will deteriorate further—threatening not only the lives of migrants, but also Algeria’s credibility and its standing before the international community regarding its human rights commitments.