On Friday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Tunisia to put an end to the “collective expulsions” of Black African migrants to a desert area, near the Libyan border.
Hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have been left stranded in dire conditions in the south of Tunisia, since being driven out of the port city of Sfax in the past week, according to the AFP.
It comes against a backdrop of violence after the funeral of a 41-year-old Tunisian man who was stabbed to death in Sfax on Monday, in a brawl between Tunisians and migrants.
“Tunisian security forces have collectively expelled several hundred Black African migrants and asylum seekers, including children and pregnant women, since 2 July, to a remote, militarised buffer zone at the Tunisia-Libya border,” HRW said.
“Many reported violence by authorities during arrest or expulsion,” it added.
HRW’s Lauren Seibert urged Tunisia’s government to “halt collective expulsions and urgently enable humanitarian access to the African migrants and asylum seekers already expelled to a dangerous area.”
The group said migrants it interviewed alleged “several people died or were killed at the border area” between Sunday and Wednesday, “some shot and others beaten” by Tunisian security forces.
“They also said that Libyan men carrying machetes or other weapons had robbed some people, and raped several women,” HRW reported, adding it was unable to independently confirm the accounts.
It called on the government to “investigate and hold to account security forces implicated in abuses.”
On Wednesday, a Tunisian rights group and a lawmaker said that over 400 sub-Saharan migrants and asylum seekers were forcibly expelled to the borders with Libya.
Ramadan Ben Omar, at the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, told Reuters that police had sent back hundreds of migrants, including women and children this week. They were left in a closed military zone, along the desert border with Libya.