On Tuesday, at least 500 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were transferred across Tunisia, after being pushed into a dangerous no-man’s-land on the Libyan border, where they were trapped for a week, without access to basic necessities, according to the Associated Press (AP).
The group was driven out earlier this month, amid a spike in anti-migrant and racism-fuelled tensions linked to a killing in the Tunisian port city of Sfax. The city remains a hub for traffickers organising risky and often deadly boat journeys across the Mediterranean to Italy.
One such boat sank on Sunday, off the Tunisian coast. Coast Guard officers retrieved one body, rescued 11 people, and declared 10 others missing, the Sfax prosecutor’s office said.
The fate of hundreds of migrants pushed into the border region drew concern from international humanitarian groups. It also raised questions about Tunisia’s migration policies, weeks after the European Union offered Tunisia’s increasingly authoritarian government $1 billion dollars to help its slumping economy — and to beef up border services to stop migrant boats from crossing to Europe.
A 29-year-old man from Ivory Coast said that uniformed men had taken migrants from their homes in Sfax in the middle of the night in early July, and brought some 600 people to the border area between the Mediterranean and the Tunisian-Libyan land border near Ben Guerdane.
Speaking to AP last week, he accused the Tunisian National Guard of beating them “like animals, like slaves,” and assaulting women in the group. He claimed that Libyan security at the border fired shots into the air to keep them at bay.
The name of the man, who said he entered Tunisia legally in 2019 and works on a golf course, is being withheld for safety reasons.
On Tuesday, he said that he and 100 others have now been transferred away from the border to the inland Tunisian town of Medenine, where they are sleeping in a courtyard. Temperatures in the area climbed above 104 Fahrenheit on Tuesday.
Tunisian Red Crescent Spokesman, Mounir Ksiksi said that about 500 people were transferred Monday to other regions of Tunisia.
A spokesperson for the International Organisation for Migration said 158 migrants were transferred to a shelter in the town of Tataouine, and another 353 people were transferred to public structures in Medenine. The IOM said Tunisian authorities have not provided information about next steps for the migrants.
The Tunisian Human Rights League called for a crisis center to address the tensions in Sfax.
Opposition politician, Nejib Chebbi accused authorities of stoking prejudice and deporting the migrants “because they are black. It is a disgrace, and this will remain a dark page in our history.”
Reports have also emerged of migrants pushed back to Tunisia’s border with Algeria, whose government routinely expels migrants south into the Sahara desert. Tunisia’s Defence Ministry would not comment Tuesday on the reports.
