logo
episode-header-image
Aug 2015
28m 19s

The Harragas of Algeria

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

Why are so many young people leaving Algeria? Unlike Syria or Libya, Algeria is supposedly a beacon of stability in a troubled region and it enjoys vast wealth from its oil and gas resources. Yet it remains a major source of illegal migrants to Europe and thousands continue to risk their lives crossing the sea to get there. They are known as 'Harraga', derived from the verb to burn in Arabic because they burn their identity documents. President Bouteflika's right hand man has called the harraga phenomenon "a national tragedy". Lucy Ash meets some of those heading for Europe's Eldorado and those bereaved friends and families of harragas who have disappeared in the Mediterranean. John Murphy producing.

Up next
May 26
Sierra Leone: the diamond that saved a thousand lives
In 2017, five men digging in an open pit found the third largest diamond ever unearthed in west Africa. It was dubbed the Peace Diamond, in memory of the brutal civil war that had ravaged large parts of the region in the 1990's – a war driven in part by factions competing for con ... Show More
31m 26s
May 19
Victim or Accomplice? The Story of Jeffrey Epstein’s Pilot Girlfriend
Nadia Marcinko, originally Marcinková, was born in Slovakia and met Jeffrey Epstein as an 18-year-old model. Later, she became a successful aircraft pilot. For seven years, she was Epstein’s main girlfriend. And she’s one of four women that US prosecutors named in a 2008 plea dea ... Show More
45m 13s
May 12
Return to Khartoum: War, loss and hope
Since 2023, Sudan has been engulfed by a brutal civil war. More than 150,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced. The war began as a power struggle between the Sudanese military and the powerful paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The capital K ... Show More
29m 50s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2015
The Harragas of Algeria
Lucy Ash meets the Harragas of Algeria - the young people who burn their identity papers and head north across the Mediterranean leaving family, friends and stability behind. 
26m 37s
Aug 2019
The mass exodus of Algeria's 'Pieds Noirs'
Hundreds of thousands of French people who'd been living in Algeria for generations fled for safety to France in the summer of 1962. It was in the last days of the war of independence in the North African nation. Known as the 'Pieds Noirs', the new arrivals were not generally wel ... Show More
9m 3s
Apr 2022
The Algerians who fought for France
More than 200,000 Algerians fought for France during the war of independence, becoming known as Harkis. After Algeria's independence in 1962, the Harkis were treated badly by both the Algerians and the French. The FLN regarded the Harkis as traitors; while the French washed their ... Show More
9m 8s
Apr 2022
Algeria's War of Independence
<p>Sixty years after Algeria's independence from France, first-hand accounts of a traumatic 'birth of a nation': a female Algerian bomber who was part of the battle for Algiers; how the French military responded with brutal tactics; a massacre on the streets of Paris; and reprisa ... Show More
53m 57s
Apr 2023
The Black Panthers in Algeria
When Elaine Mokhtefi landed in newly independent Algeria in the early 1960s, she was only planning for a short visit. But she quickly found herself at the centre of a special period in the country’s history, as Algiers played host to liberation groups from across the world – earn ... Show More
31m 21s
Dec 2014
Surviving the Most Lethal Route in the World
One boat, two families; trying to escape war in Syria, desperate to start a new life in Europe. In October 2013, dozens of migrants aboard that boat died, as it travelled across the Mediterranean Sea. But some eventually made it to Malta. What happened next? 
50m 3s