Over the last two years, North Africa, and to some extent the whole southern coast of the Mediterranean, has become a 'dead end zone' for Black African migrants. "Passing through North Africa, migrants are treated like slaves" for having committed the only 'sin' of deserting the misery, persecutions and conflicts of their countries in search of a better life, a disturbing development of European Union Migration policy.

Algeria is racked by violence and scarred by poverty. But some believe its long nightmare could soon end.

The Algerian authorities have prevented thousands of Berber-speaking protesters from holding a planned protest march through the capital Algiers. Soldiers wielding machine guns and aided by police dogs set up road-blocks around the capital Algiers and turned back buses coming from the mainly-Berber eastern region of Kabylia to prevent a planned march by on Thursday.