It was episodes of this kind that led the drafters of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, adopted by the OAU Assembly in 1981, to include in Article 12(5) of the treaty a specific prohibition on mass expulsions, defined as “that which is aimed at national, racial, ethnic or religious groups”. However, expulsions have continued. In the mid-1990s, an estimated half a million Chadian and other nationality workers were expelled from Nigeria, including among them many who had been legally established in the country for many years.170 Refugees from conflict in neighbouring countries have not been exempt despite the prohibitions on refoulement in the refugee conventions: Guinea expelled Sierra Leonean refugees en masse in 2000 and 2001, an episode which was later condemned by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.171 Expulsions of migrants from neighbouring African countries have been joined in more recent years by periodic expulsions or deportations of West Africans (and others) from North African or European countries. Migration issues have been systematically integrated into EU-African cooperation frameworks, starting from the Cotonou Agreement between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states adopted in 2000, in which the signatory states agreed to cooperate on irregular migration and readmission of nationals as well as to consider strategies for the “economic and social development of the regions from which migrants originate”.172 Negotiation of bilateral readmission agreements with EU countries have been highly controversial in countries such as Mali, which have been unable to obtain significant reciprocal concessions from European countries to provide work permits or legalise the presence of some of those with irregular status. Mali is also “among the few countries that have continued to accept the return of non-national migrants”, especially from north African countries.173 Libya under the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi fluctuated between a policy of welcoming Africans and expelling them. Mass expulsions became a pattern from the mid-1990s, with a particularly serious round of violence against foreigners in 2000.174 Morocco regularly expels African migrants to the border with Algeria.175 170 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under articles 16 and 17 of the Covenant: Concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Nigeria, 13 May 1998, E/C.12/1/Add.23. 171 Communication 249/2002, Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (on behalf of Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea) v Republic of Guinea, Decided at the 36th ordinary session, December 2004, 20th Activity Report. 172 Partnership Agreement between the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States of the one part, and the European Community and its Member States of the other part, “The Cotonou Agreement”, Signed in Cotonou on 23 June 2000, Revised in Luxembourg on 25 June 2005, Revised in Ouagadougou on 22 June 2010, Article 13. 173 Florian Trauner and Stephanie Deimel, “The Impact of EU Migration Policies on African Countries: The Case of Mali”, International Migration, Vol.51, No.4, 2013; see also Eleonora Koeb and Henrike Hohmeister, The revision of Article 13 on Migration of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement: What’s at stake for the ACP? European Centre for Development Policy Management, February 2010. 174 Stemming the Flow: Abuses Against Migrants, Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Libya, Human Rights Watch, September 2006; Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 9 of the Convention: Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, CERD/C/64/CO/4, 10 May 2004; European Commission, “Technical Mission to Libya on Illegal Immigration, 27 Nov – 6 Dec 2004, Report”; “UNHCR Concerned Over Continued Forcible Return of Potential Refugees from Libya,” UNHCR Briefing Notes, September 21, 2004; Amnesty International, “Libyan Arab Jamahiriya: Briefing to the UN Human Rights Committee”, June 2007, AI Index: MDE 19/008/2007. 175 Human Rights Watch, Abused and Expelled: Ill-Treatment of Sub-Saharan African Migrants in Morocco, 2014. 53