During their journey, many migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers have difficulty returning to Agadez or Arlit with signs of generalized fatigue, trauma or other forms of symptoms that affect their health and that they often find difficult to share with others.
If you are in this situation and do not know where to go to access free medical care for people in transit, this article will help you a lot!
Indeed, several state organizations and NGOs are there to take care of your health.
Where can you get medical care when you are a migrant in transit in Agadez and Arlit?
Several health structures (state, NGO and United Nations agencies) provide medical care for migrants, including Médecins Du Monde (MDM), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the Red Cross, mother and child centre and the Health District, etc.
The organization Médecin Du Monde (MDM) guarantees health care and psychological support to:
- migrants,
- local populations,
- survivors of sexual violence and harassment.
Through MDM support you can access public health services of the Mother and Child Health Center (CSME: Centre de Santé Mères Enfants), which provides women and their children with medical care, medicines for continuity of care and also emergency prevention kits for people who have been exposed to the HIV virus.
For other questions, the doors of the MDM are open from 8am to 1pm and 2pm to 5.45pm Monday to Friday.
- In addition to MDM, which operates only in Agadez, the organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) operates in Agadez and Arlit.
Indeed, Médecins Sans Frontières provides medical, psychosocial, and psychological care to migrant people who are notional and interactive.
MSF also provides care to the local population aged 0 to 15 years and to pregnant women.
For more information, visit the MSF office : Every day from morning to evening from: 8am to 1pm and 2pm to 5.30pm
In Agadez : located in the Young Executive district next to the office of Filets Sociaux a few steps east side of the civil prison (jail).
In Arlit : the MSF office is located in the Boukoki 1 district not far from the CRF.
- The International Organization for Migration (IOM) for its part guarantees medical care only for migrants living at the transit center who have applied for voluntary repatriation. Thus, they will benefit from shelter, health and psychosocial care and assistance and protection services for children and women.
Those interested in IOM's Voluntary Return Programme: can visit the IOM-Agadez center in the area called Dubai every day from 7.30am to 12pm and from 2pm to 5.30pm
At the same times, you can access the IOM-Arlit office in the SNTN district.
- The French Red Cross (CRF), in support of the Nigerien Red Cross, has been working in Agadez since 2013 in medical assistance to migrants in transit.
Red Cross teams visit different sites to provide care to migrants: in health facilities or health centers, in hostels or brothels, which serve as accommodation.
If you are a non-Nigerien migrant leaving or returning, you can access Red Cross services through the mobile clinics deployed in the ghettos and brothels where migrants live.
- The CRF mobile clinic is held three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and operates in six (6) sites: four hostels and two brothels. The outings are done in the morning from 10 am.
- Apart from the mobile clinics, the French Red Cross has a fixed room within the office and is accessible to any departing, returned or repressed international migrant, whether they come on their own or are referred.
NB: the Red Cross sometimes transfers a patient to another health center, generally the Mother and Child Center and the Regional Hospital Center, for cases that require the intervention of a specialist. Indeed, the Red Cross has a referral agreement with these health structures, which facilitates the care of patients.
If necessary, you can go to the office of CRF
In Agadez, opposite the police station, on the pavement between the Total gas station and the Wadata restaurant or opposite the Tinia private school
In Arlit: in Boukoki 1 neighborhood, not far from the MSF office
They are available to welcome you from Monday to Friday at the times below:
from 7:30 am to 12 pm in the morning
and in the evening from 2pm to 5pm.
In addition to these structures, there is also the NGO COOPI which provides medical assistance to migrants and the local population.
- Psychiatric support for migrants, returned migrants and the population of Arlit. Furthermore, the NGO COOPI organizes awareness sessions on mental health and speaking group.
- Psychosocial support for refugees and asylum seekers in Agadez.
For more information, you can go to COOPI’s office located in the Jeune Cadre district next to the German cooperation office GIZ and CRS:
in the morning from 8am to 1pm
evening from 2pm to 5.30pm
- Arlit Health District: offers care to migrants as well as local populations. Children from 0 to 5 years old benefit from free care.
The district is located in the Tamisna district
- Agadez Mother and Child Health Centre.
Located in the Dagamanet district, behind SERTA, the Mother and Child Health Centre offers medical care, such as emergency prevention kits for people who have been exposed to the HIV virus and additional examinations, medical expertise and often referral to other health facilities.
The Centre is open and offers its services to the local population, migrants of all nationalities and victims of physical assault and sexual violence.
For any questions:
- Contact us on our Facebook page info, Monday to Thursday from 8am to 5.45pm and Fridays from 8am to 1pm.
- You can also call us at these same times on our toll-free numbers 92 90 55 55 or 98 31 38 24