This latest incident follows Algeria’s arrest and summary expulsion of 10 foreign nationals from the Association of Unemployed Workers of the Maghreb on Feb. 20. They travelled to Algiers to attend the first Maghreb Forum for the Fight Against Unemployment and Temporary Work. Instead, police held them—five Tunisians, three Mauritanians and two Moroccans—at the local police station for several hours before taking them to the airport and expelling them. Police also detained two Algerians, Abdelkader Kherba, a member of the National Committee for the rights of the unemployed (CNDDC), and Tchiko, all day, before releasing them without charge that night. (HRW, March 27)
Meanwhile, at the other end of the African continent in the South African port of Durban, leaders of the BRICS nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China and host South Africa—are meeting to discuss plans for a new development bank to rival Western-dominated institutions like the World Bank and IMF. But the talks are reportedly stymied by Beijing’s insistence that the new bank be based in China. (Al Jazeera, March 27)
