Merkel off to Algeria as scramble for Africa continues

After a three African nation visits,
Geman Chancellor Merkel is headed for Algeria, a north African country,
to find ways to boost trade with the Mediterranean nation.

 

Merkel had earlier visited Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya to bolster relations and trade.

 

The visit to Algeria is likely to herald complicated issue of migration as Berlin looks for ways to stem irregular migration.

 

Officially, the main purpose of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Algeria is to strengthen trade relations.

 

According to Algerian news agency APS,
the visit will offer “an opportunity to take stock of the economic
relations between Algeria and Germany” and to strengthen them.

 

And there is room for improvement. In
terms of imports to Algeria, Germany ranks fifth behind China and the
Mediterranean states of France, Italy and Spain. In terms of exports —
Algeria’s most important are oil and gas — Germany
is barely on the list.

 

But Merkel’s talks with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia will likely also focus on migration.

 

Algeria is by far the largest country in
the region, bordering Mali and Niger in the south. Many migrants travel
through these countries to reach the Mediterranean and attempt the
perilous voyage to Europe.

 

These migrants aren’t particularly
welcome in Algeria. In July, the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) accused Algeria of simply leaving people to their fates
in the desert on the border with Niger, an allegation Interior
Minister Noureddine Bedoui indignantly rejected.

 

But Algerians, too, have been seeking their fortunes in Europe, although Algerian asylum-seekers are rarely accepted in Germany.

 

Only 2 percent are given the chance to stay, a rate similar to migrants from neighbouring countries Tunisia and Morocco.

 

 

The German government has launched an
effort to classify these North African states as “safe countries of
origin,” making it easier to return rejected asylum-seekers.

 

Berlin hopes this move will not only
speed up asylum procedures and deportations, but also send a signal to
potential migrants and asylum-seekers from the region that their chances
of being able to stay in Germany are low.

 

But the government needs the approval of
Germany’s federal states to make this happen. And there are several
state governments that include members of the Green party, which is
against such a move.

 

The Greens have pointed out that
homosexuals, members of the opposition and journalists often face
persecution in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, and calls the safety of
these countries into question.

 

“If we look at Germany’s Constitutional
Court requirements in order [for a country] to be considered a safe
country of origin, then we have to look at how the laws are applied,
what the general political situation is like, what
the legal situation is like — and we can’t assume that these are safe
countries of origin,” Barbara Lochbihler, the Greens’ spokesperson on
human rights and a member of the European Parliament, told DW.

 

Stephan Weil, state premier of Lower
Saxony, told the Funke media group that even if these countries were
deemed “safe” in Germany, “the best laws are useless […] if these
countries continue to refuse to take back their citizens.”

 

Weil said there are “concrete economic
reasons” why the Maghreb states often refuse repatriation, in particular
because the successful migrants tend to send a lot of money back to
their home countries.

 

This is precisely where Merkel’s Africa
strategy comes in, another reason for her trip to Algeria. She wants to
make a contribution to Algeria’s development in order to tackle the
causes behind migration.

 

Algeria suffers from high unemployment,
especially among young people. More than one in four Algerians under 30
is unemployed, and this age group accounts for more than two-thirds of
the population.

 

 

Another problem is the country’s
one-sided economy. Even though the government has been promising for
years to reduce its dependence on the energy sector and diversify its
economy, little has happened.

 

“Our country is in need of accelerating
the transition movement to an economy of knowledge and innovation,” said
Aliu Haddad, head of Algeria’s largest business association, at a
recent conference.

 

Oil and gas continue to account for
around 95 percent of export earnings. According to the latest World Bank
report on Algeria, the unemployment rate can be attributed to weak
growth outside the energy sector.

 

The report also stated that, in addition
to young people, highly trained workers, especially women, have been
particularly affected by joblessness.

 

There is also room for development in the
tourism industry. In contrast to neighboring Tunisia and Morocco,
Algeria isn’t a tourist hot spot. And there are often complaints from
foreign investors — at least those outside the energy
sector — about too much bureaucracy.

 

Bouteflika last visited Merkel in 2010, while Merkel’s last trip to Algeria was in 2008

 

On the positive side, Algeria has been a
close ally of the West in the fight against Islamic extremism, and a
stronghold of stability. This is in stark contrast to the failed state
of Libya, for example. But Lochbihler says this
stability comes at a price.

 

“Whenever the security forces round up or
arrest opposition groups, they communicate to the outside world that
this is a necessary measure, part of the fight against terrorism. But
the assessment of what counts as terrorism is
very, very vague,” she said.

The country’s stability depends not least
on the health of its 81-year-old president. Bouteflika has been in a
wheelchair since his 2013 stroke, and has not appeared in public for
several years.

 

Merkel’s trip this week is making up for a
canceled visit in February 2017, when the Algerian government called
off her planned visit at short notice due to Bouteflika’s “acute
bronchitis.”