Five men, nine women and 20 children abandoned by people smugglers die while trying to reach Algeria 
 
 The bodies of 34 migrants who were abandoned by people smugglers while trying to reach neighbouring Algeria were found in the Niger desert last week, authorities have said. 
 
 “Thirty-four people, including five men, nine women and 20 children, died trying to cross the desert,” Niger’s interior ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. 
 
 “They probably died of thirst, as is often the case, and they were found near Assamaka,” a security source said, referring to a border post between Niger and Algeria. 
 
 The migrants were abandoned by people smugglers, the statement added, and only two of the bodies had so far been identified – a man and a 26-year-old woman, both from Niger. 
 
 Temperatures in the region can reach 42C (108F), with blinding sandstorms tearing across the desert. The conditions mean that only a fraction of those who die trying to cross the area are ever found. 
 
 Thousands of children travelling alone from Africa to Europe, says Unicef Read more 
 
 Thousands of migrants have arrived in Algeria in recent years, mostly from neighbouring Mali and Niger. 
 
 Libya used to play host to the majority of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, but since that country descended into chaos following the death of Muammar Gaddafi, Algeria has become the main destination. 
 
 Many pass through Algeria as they head for Europe, but more than 7,000 migrants from Niger, mostly women and children, were returned to their home country in 2015 as part of an agreement between the two countries. 
 
 Europe has recently turned its attention to trying to curb the number of illegal arrivals from Africa, after a deal with Ankara in March cut the number of people trying to cross from Turkey. 
 
 More than 2,814 people have drowned trying to reach Europe since January, according to the UN refugee agency, prompting urgent efforts to tackle the problem. 
 
 A new proposal mooted last week involves using EU funds to promote private investment of up to €60bn in countries where many migrants come from – Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria, Mali and Senegal, as well as Jordan and Lebanon. 
 
 The European commission also wants to speed up readmission deals with African countries and with Pakistan and Afghanistan, to make it easier to send back people who are not granted refugee status. 
 
 The commission is also set to unveil a plan for a “blue card” system for skilled migrants to come to Europe legally. 
 
 The aim is to reduce the incentive for people to risk their lives travelling to the continent on fragile boats. ||||| A group of migrants traveling from Niger into Algeria were found dead Sunday, abandoned by the smugglers who were leading them, the Niger Ministry of Interior said in a statement. 
 
 The migrants are presumed to have died from extreme thirst, as is common in the scorching temperatures of the landlocked desert environment. 
 
 Niger is a hub for migrants crossing from West Africa into Europe, with more than 60,000 passing through the Agadez region of the desert between February and April alone, according to a report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) called the Displacement Tracking Matrix. 
 
 Of the 34 migrants, all were from Niger or Nigeria. "They were five men, nine women, and twenty minors," Linda Cottone of IOM told ABC News. This is somewhat unusual, as the majority of migrants passing through Niger are men between the ages of 18 and 59, according to a study by the IOM. In fact, the average proportion of minors passing through Arlit, a town in the Agadez region where the migrants were found, is less than 10 percent, according to the study. 
 
 Getty Images 
 
 Migrants come through Niger on the way to Algeria from several other areas in Africa -- most often from Nigeria, Mali, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, and Guinea-Bissau, according to IOM. 
 
 Migrants Traveling Towards Algeria 
 
 "Thousands of people have lost their lives as a result of the indifferent or even deliberate actions of migrant smugglers," according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Nonetheless, "As border controls have improved, migrants are deterred from attempting to illegally cross them themselves and are diverted into the hands of smugglers." ||||| Media caption Photos show the scene where the migrants were found in the Sahara 
 
 Rescue workers in Niger say they have found the bodies of 92 people who died of thirst after their vehicles broke down as they tried to cross the Sahara. 
 
 Rescue worker Almoustapha Alhacen said the corpses were in a severe state of decomposition and had been partly eaten, probably by jackals. 
 
 Those found are thought to be migrant workers and their families. Most were women and children. 
 
 Niger lies on a major migrant route between sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. 
 
 But among those who make it across the desert, many end up working in North African countries. 
 
 Analysis Thousands attempt to cross this stretch of Sahara desert to reach the coasts of North Africa, and from there Europe. I remember the exhaustion of migrants whom I met in Agadez in 2011. Most were in their 20s and determined to continue their journey - despite the war in Libya at the time. "In our country, our talent is useless," one young Nigerian said. "But in Europe, we'll be able to thrive on it," he added. Agadez is still several hundred kilometres from either Libya or Algeria. There is nothing in between but sand - a perilous desert where the extreme heat can kill. Traffickers extort large sums of money from migrants seeking a one-way ticket for a better life. They all know that death may be on the way, but they're ready to risk it, clinging onto hope. 
 
 'It was horrible' 
 
 According to Mr Alhacen, one of the vehicles that the migrants were travelling in broke down some time after they left Arlit at the end of September or beginning of October. 
 
 Security officials said the second vehicle broke down as it was on its way back to Arlit to get spare parts. 
 
 It appears that some of the group set out on foot, including up to 10 people who made it back to Arlit and raised the alarm, he said. 
 
 It was reported on Monday that five bodies had been found. 
 
 On Wednesday, volunteers and soldiers working in searing heat found other corpses about 10km (six miles) from the Algerian border. 
 
 Mr Alhacen told the BBC's Hausa service the bodies of 52 children, 33 women and seven men had since been buried. 
 
 He said that it was most likely that the people were from Niger, judging by their dress and how the women's hair was braided. 
 
 Korans and tablets used by children at madrassas [Islamic school] were found amongst the belongings, said Mr Alhacen. 
 
 Speaking from Arlit, a centre for uranium mining north of Agadez, Mr Alhacen said he had experienced the worst day of his life when he found the bodies. 
 
 "The corpses were decomposed; it was horrible," he said. 
 
 My guess is that the children were madrassa [Islamic school] children, being taken to Algeria to work Almoustapha Alhacen, Rescue worker 
 
 "We found bodies across a wide area. We had no idea what to expect because we didn't know how many people had been in the vehicles." 
 
 They were given Muslim burials where they were found, Mr Alhacen said. 
 
 ''What was shocking was that they were small. There was a dead woman holding her baby," he added. 
 
 Given that so many of those found were teenagers, Mr Alhacen said it was possible they were on their way to low-paid jobs in neighbouring Algeria. 
 
 "My guess is that the children were madrassa children, being taken to Algeria to work. That is the only explanation that I and others can find for such a large number of children having travelled together,'' Mr Alhacen said. 
 
 About 80,000 migrants cross the Sahara desert through Niger, according to John Ging, director of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 
 
 "They are basically economic migrants. They are in search of work. They are so impoverished that they have to make these hazardous journeys," he told the BBC's Newsday programme. 
 
 Niger is one of the world's poorest countries and frequently suffers from drought and food crises. 
 
 Migration routes across the Sahara desert ||||| Authorities in the nation of Niger have recovered 92 bodies of migrants who died of thirst after the trucks they were travelling in broke down in a desolate no-man's-land at the feet of the Sahara desert, officials said Thursday. 
 
 The dozens of people were being smuggled last month along a well-established trafficking route used to move contraband, including people, from Niger to neighboring Algeria, said Col. Garba Makido the governor of the Nigerien province of Agadez, south of where the bodies were found. Officials were only alerted to the incident when a lone woman managed to stumble out of the desert earlier this month. She was picked up by a passing car which took her to the city of Arlit, around 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of where the first of the two trucks broke down. 
 
 The next day, a father walking with his two young daughters also arrived. But his children perished of thirst just a few kilometers (miles) outside of Arlit, said Makido. A total of 21 people survived, most of whom made their way to towns at the Algerian border. 
 
 "This is a true tragedy," said Makido. "The prosecutor has opened an investigation and we plan to do everything we can to find the truck drivers." 
 
 First word of the incident came Monday when officials reported that 35 people died of thirst but the death toll rose when more bodies were recovered from the desert. 
 
 The tract of land that runs across the continent just south of the vast Sahara desert has for decades been the province of smugglers and criminals, including the local chapter of al-Qaida. Tens of thousands of West African immigrants attempting to reach Europe each year have tapped into this perilous route, after authorities cracked down on sea routes via the Atlantic Ocean. They travel from countries across the region to the Nigerien city of Agadez where they pay smugglers to ferry them across the ocean of sand in rickety trucks, braving one of the most austere landscapes on earth for a chance at a better life.
– A group of nearly three dozen migrants, most of them kids, paid smugglers to whisk them out of Niger and Nigeria and to a new life to the north—but instead paid the ultimate price. The five men, nine women, and 20 minors were found dead Sunday in the Sahara, per Niger's Ministry of Interior, apparently ditched by those they'd hoped would save them and likely victims of extreme thirst, ABC News reports. The interior minister said the migrants had perished between June 6 and June 12 near Assamaka, per the BBC, with the Guardian noting that temps in the desert can soar upward of 105 degrees Fahrenheit. What transpired isn't an uncommon consequence: "Thousands of people have lost their lives as a result of the indifferent or even deliberate actions of migrant smugglers," the UN Office on Drugs and Crime says on its website, noting that as borders have become more tightly policed, migrants have become more wary of trying to cross over on their own. Which often leads to a "highly profitable" endeavor for the smugglers, who "enjoy low risk of detection and punishment," and tragedy for the smuggled, who may pay upward of $345 each for the chance to escape, per an International Organization for Migration report. The IOM notes that Niger is a waypoint for escapees on their way to Algeria and Libya (and Europe after that), with migrants usually hailing from Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea-Bissau. What made this group of doomed deserters unusual: the number of children. Per the IOM report, a tracking tool showed that between February and April, the 60,000-plus migrants who passed through Niger were overwhelmingly male and between the ages of 18 and 59. (A drowned baby has become a "crushing symbol" of Europe's migrant crisis.)