Rescue teams have saved a thousand African migrants abandoned by people smugglers in the Niger part of the Sahara desert in recent months, the UN's International Office of Migration (IOM) said Wednesday. "A total of 1,000 migrants have been rescued since April of this year in northern Niger by the (IOM's) search and rescue operations," the agency said. "More dangerous routes are being used by smugglers," it said, after carrying out a six-day assessment of the Tenere desert and in Niger's border region with Libya, where migrants wait to cross the Mediterranean to get to Europe.



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