For decades, the migrants crossing the Sahara were assumed to be young men travelling alone. But the data from 2025 lays that myth to rest. The IOM has recorded a 32% rise in the number of women and children on these routes. The shift signals a change in how Sahelian households try to survive, but it also exposes women and children to harsher conditions than ever. According to Alarm Phone Sahara, the women and children among the thousands expelled from Algeria are not spared the violence of pushbacks in the middle of the desert, far from any oversight or protection.
The nightmare of “Point Zero”
The feminisation of these flows brings a particular vulnerability, deepened by the practice of “unofficial” pushbacks. These involve abandoning migrants in the desert at “Point Zero”, on the border between Algeria and Niger. For women travelling with young children, the forced march of 15 to 20 kilometres to reach the village of Assamaka is a gruelling ordeal. Alarm Phone Sahara stresses that those expelled arrive exhausted, thirsty and traumatised. Along these routes, the risk of abuse and exploitation rises. Smuggling networks, alert to this vulnerability, adapt their methods and make these women ever more dependent on unscrupulous “protectors”.
The breakdown of protective structures
The arrival of these vulnerable groups at transit centres changes the very nature of humanitarian aid. The needs are no longer limited to shelter; they now include reproductive health, child nutrition and protection from gender-based violence. Existing facilities struggle to keep up. The lack of secure spaces for women and children creates an anxious, unsafe environment. In 2025, the presence of young children on these routes raises the question of access to paediatric care in areas where health facilities barely exist. These children grow up in the uncertainty of the desert, far from any protective structures.
Towards a diplomacy of human protection
This new social reality has to be reckoned with. The same policies cannot apply in the same way to seasonal workers and to mothers with infants. We need a more gender-sensitive approach, with female staff at monitoring points and dedicated protection corridors. The feminisation of migration in Niger is a symptom of a deep subsistence crisis, and it forces the international community to look beyond the statistics. The desert must no longer be a place where people can exploit women’s vulnerability with impunity. 2025 marks the year the Sahara lost its exclusively male character, and demands a radical rethink of rescue.
