Navigation guide Refugee populations in the UK: Algerians - ICAR

Zeroual’s election as president in 1995 was greeted with widespread optimism, reflected in the graph of
asylum requests with the dramatic fall in 1996. The wave of massacres in 1997 in villages on the outskirts of
Algiers shocked the country and forced more people into exile. By the end of the year, the massacres
extended to the more remote mountain area of Relizane, again affecting the profile of people leaving the
area, and eventually the country, and explaining the continued growth in asylum numbers in 1998.
The election of Bouteflika was again greeted as a promising sign and asylum applications fell slightly, but it
was soon clear that this optimism was misplaced. Renewed violence in 2000 was marked by a further
increase in applications in 2001, and following the disturbances in Kabylia in 2001, there was another
change in profile to include the growing number of refugees from the Berber regions. The continued, gradual
fall since 2001 reflects the falling number of attacks during this period, though there were still over 6,000
requests for asylum from Algerians in 2003. 24 Recent reports highlight the fact that, despite improvements in
the human rights situation in Algeria, reasons for flight remain. 25
Experiences of exile
The unfolding of these events can usefully be related to changes in the numbers of asylum seekers from
Algeria (see above). There have been at least five distinct movements of people out of Algeria relating to
the unfolding of events over the last decade and each group has a different profile and different needs.
These groups consist of moderate Islamists from 1992 onwards, typically from areas that were previously
FIS controlled such as around Oran; intellectuals and artists from 1993 onwards, mostly from the capital;
army deserters from 1994; more remote rural residents from 1997; and more recently, since the events in
Kabylia of 2001, a greater number of Berber migrants. Individuals have left Algeria due to both individual
and generalised threats. An individual who had been regularly warned by armed groups during 1993 and
1994 and eventually left, described how he lived with the knowledge that he was a constant target:
‘It’s not the fear of a day, or a week, of an event, a movement, an insurrection that only lasts a day, it really
goes on. And you don’t know how to live with it, how to be vigilant, how to preserve yourself because a bomb
can explode at any time, they can come to your house, they can kill you in the street, on your way to work,
they can kill you, and your children.’ 26
However, a much greater number of people have been given refugee status due to their fear of the
government, and many refugees in Europe face a death threat in Algeria even though their activities have
been considered to be political by European courts. There has also been a much larger movement of people
who have great difficulty demonstrating the individual persecution that is required for them to receive
refugee status and who, in some cases, have no interest in receiving refugee status. However, even for
those individuals who have not been individually targeted by either side in the conflict, the generalised state
of violence that has prevailed in many parts of Algeria for the last decade is likely to have been the most
24 UNHCR (February 2004) Asylum applications lodged in industrialized countries: Levels and trends 2003. Available at
http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/opendoc.pdftbl=STATISTICS&id=403b1d7e4&page=statistics [accessed 4
May 2004].
25 Amnesty International (2003a) ‘Algeria: Amnesty International concludes visit: promise of change but human rights
issues remain unresolved’. MDE 28/004/2003. Available at
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE280042003open&of=ENG-DZA [accessed at 4 May 2004]. Amnesty
International (2003b) ‘Algeria: Asylum seekers fleeing a continuing human rights crisis’. MDE 28/007/2003. Available at
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE280072003open&of=ENG-DZA [accessed 4 May 2004].
26 Collyer, M. (2002) ‘Explaining change in established migration systems: the movement of Algerians to France and
the UK’ University of Sussex, DPhil thesis, bound and recorded at the British Library.
Navigation guide to refugee populations: Algerians
©ICAR 2004, moral rights Michael Collyer
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