Algeria

The Algerian authorities continue to severely restrict freedom of expression and assembly. Peaceful protestors are arrested and prosecuted, including those protesting about unemployment and public services. Those protesting in solidarity with detained activists, as well as journalists and bloggers covering protests on social media, have also been detained. The authorities continue to maintain a protest ban in Algiers under a decree from 2001.

More than 280 members of the minority Ahmadi religious movement were prosecuted in relation to their religious beliefs and practices during 2017. In August, authorities rearrested Mohamed Fali, head of the Ahmadi community in Algeria, in Ain Safra, Naama province, before trying him before the Ain Tedles Court of First Instance for collecting donations without a licence, “denigrating Islamic dogma”, and “membership of an unauthorized association”. By the end of the year, he faced six cases pending before different courts arising from the peaceful practice of his faith.

The authorities have taken no steps to open investigations and address the impunity for the human rights abuses and possible crimes against humanity committed by security forces and armed groups in the 1990s during Algeria’s internal conflict, which left an estimated 200,000 people killed or forcibly disappeared. These abuses include unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, rape, and other forms of torture.

From April to June, a group of 25 Syrian refugees were stranded in the buffer zone of Morocco’s desert border area with Algeria. In June, the Algerian authorities announced they would permit them to enter Algeria and would allow UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, to provide them with assistance. However, the Algerian authorities later refused to let them in through an unofficial crossing point. The refugees remained stranded in the desert until Morocco granted them protection.

Between August and December, the authorities arbitrarily arrested and forcibly expelled more than 6,500 sub-Saharan African migrants to neighbouring Niger and Mali on the basis of racial profiling.