Niger Enacts Law Forbidding Migrant Smuggling Across its Territories.

Niamey, 14 May 2015(Lana) Niger on Wednesday enacted a law banning smuggling of immigrants across the country's boundaries. The new law calls for a 30 year imprisonment as well as fines for those engaged in migrant trafficking, the National Assembly Secretary General Bubakr Yatemoju said. The Justice Minister Maro Amadou said 'the new law gives authorities legal power to punish those who benefit from trafficking, and at the mean time protects rights of migrants. He stressed that it did not ban legal immigration. Thousands try to reach Europe, they are being smuggled across Niger to Libya, but many die either on the desert journey or drown in the Sea. More the 10000 bodies of illegal immigrants were recovered from the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya last month, and it expected that the number of immigrants to Italy this year would be around 200000, higher than the 170000 registered by the Italian Interior Ministry last year. =Lana=