Algerian authorities have been conducting over the past few days a genuine manhunt against black sub-Saharan migrants stranded in Algeria.

Unlike Morocco, which has regularized the situation of thousands of African migrants and helped them to permanently settle in the Kingdom, Algeria resorted to strong-handed and humiliating methods to expel collectively the sub-Saharan migrants trapped in Algerian territory on their way to the European Eldorado.

This large-scale manhunt operation began on December 1 at the very time Algiers was readying to host an African Investment and Business Forum (December 3 to 5) meant to mark, according to Algerian officials, Algeria’s come back on the African economic scene.

It should be pointed out that this forum has been short-lived because of a misunderstanding between Ali Haddad, the president of the employers’ association, and Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal who withdrew from the forum, followed by all the members of his cabinet.

So far, more than 2,000 West African migrants are held in makeshift camps, located in the western outskirts of Algiers or near the southern town of Tamanrasset, before being expelled Manu-militari on board buses to their countries of origin.

The news has rapidly made the buzz on social networks and the virtual world. To add insult to injury, a so-called Algerian human rights defender and a close friend of President Bouteflika, Farouq Ksentini, who is the president of the National Consultative League for the Promotion of Human Rights, called his country to get rid of the thousands of African migrants because, he argued, they are spreading AIDS in Algeria.

Yet, this is not a premiere in this country. Police forces have conducted  in the past similar expeditious expulsions of migrants. At the end of 2014, thousands of Nigeriens were expelled in the same way from the city of Oran and in August last year more than 400 Malian migrants were deported from Tamanrasset to Bamako.

For observers, this is what makes the difference between Algeria and Morocco for African citizens. King Mohammed VI, wherever he goes in Africa, is always warmly welcomed by both the people and the officials, unlike Algerian leaders who are met with indifference whenever they make trips in Africa.