The bus station in Agadez, a remote city of low mud-brick buildings in the West African nation of Niger, is buzzing again.

Every week, thousands of migrants from West and Central Africa leave from the station in this gateway city to the Sahara aboard a caravan of pickup trucks, traveling for days toward North Africa, where many will then try to cross the Mediterranean in a quest to reach Europe.

For years, this portal was closed, at least officially. The country’s government, friendly to Europe, outlawed migration out of Agadez, and in exchange the European Union poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Niger’s coffers and the local economy.

But last summer, after generals in Niger seized power in a military coup, the European Union suspended financial support to the government — and in response, the generals severed the migration arrangement with the European Union in November. The gate is once again open, and a fresh flock of hopeful migrants is once again passing through, to the relief of many locals.

“Migration is how we make ends meet,” said Aicha Maman, a single mother who runs a business assisting migrants and served jail time in Agadez last year for illegal trafficking.