TUNIS, Tunisia — At the very least 500 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have been transferred again to Tunisia after being pushed right into a harmful no-man’s-land on the Libyan border and trapped for every week there with out entry to primary requirements, support companies mentioned Tuesday.
The group was pushed out earlier this month amid a spike in anti-migrant and racism-fueled tensions linked to a killing within the Tunisian port metropolis of Sfax, a hub for traffickers organizing dangerous and generally lethal boat journeys throughout the Mediterranean Sea to Italy.
One such boat sank Sunday off the Tunisian coast. Coast guard officers retrieved one physique, rescued 11 individuals and declared 10 others as lacking, the Sfax prosecutor’s workplace mentioned.
The destiny of tons of of migrants pushed into the Tunisia-Libya border area drew concern from worldwide humanitarian teams. It additionally raised questions on Tunisia’s migration insurance policies, weeks after the European Union supplied Tunisia’s more and more authoritarian authorities $1 billion to assist its slumping economic system — and to beef up border companies to cease migrant boats from crossing to Europe.
A 29-year-old man from Ivory Coast mentioned that uniformed males had taken migrants from their properties in Sfax in the course of the evening in early July and introduced some 600 individuals to the border space between the Mediterranean Sea and the Tunisian-Libyan land border close to Ben Guerdane.
Chatting with The Related Press final week, he accused the Tunisian Nationwide Guard of beating them “like animals, like slaves,” and assaulting ladies within the group. He claimed that Libyan safety on the border fired pictures into the air to maintain the civilians at bay.
The title of the person, who mentioned he entered Tunisia legally in 2019 and works on a golf course, is being withheld for security causes.
On Tuesday, he mentioned that he and 100 others have now been transferred away from the border to the inland Tunisian city of Medenine, the place they’re sleeping in a courtyard. Temperatures within the space climbed above 40 levels Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday.
Tunisian Crimson Crescent spokesperson Mounir Ksiksi mentioned Tuesday that about 500 individuals from sub-Saharan Africa who had been trapped within the border zone had been transferred Monday to different areas of Tunisia.
A spokesperson for the Worldwide Group for Migration mentioned 158 migrants had been transferred to a shelter within the city of Tataouine and one other 353 individuals transferred to public constructions in Medenine. The IOM mentioned Tunisian authorities haven’t supplied details about subsequent steps for the migrants.
Below strain from humanitarian companies, Tunisian President Kais Saied on Sunday ordered the Tunisian Crimson Crescent to deliver support to the migrants. Saied stoked racist incidents earlier this yr by railing at Black Africans who transit via Tunisia towards Europe.
On Monday, Saied denied mistreatment of migrants by Tunisian authorities, and lashed out at migrant traffickers he mentioned had been in search of to “destabilize Tunisia.” He known as for coordinated efforts to “to sort out the origins, sources and causes of the issue” along with safety measures.
Tunisian Crimson Crescent head Abdellatif Chabou mentioned he headed to the border area to supervise an operation to deliver meals and water to the migrants and permit them to contact their households. Three individuals needing medical support had been transferred to a neighborhood hospital, together with a pregnant lady, Chabou advised native broadcaster Radio Mosaique on Monday.
The president of the Tunisian Human Rights Observatory, Mustapha Abdelkebir, mentioned the migrants had no entry to primary sanitation and had been trapped between armed forces on both facet of the border, uncovered to excessive warmth with out shelter.
The Worldwide Group for Migration mentioned it was working with Tunisian authorities to make sure humanitarian help, and known as on Tunisia to respect “the dignity and rights of all migrants” and to counter “dangerous and destructive rhetoric, hate speech and hate crimes.”
The Tunisian Human Rights League known as for a disaster heart to handle the tensions in Sfax.
Opposition politician Nejib Chebbi accused authorities of stoking prejudice and deporting the migrants “as a result of they’re Black. It’s a shame, and this may stay a darkish web page in our historical past.”
Reviews have additionally emerged of migrants pushed again to Tunisia’s border with Algeria, whose authorities routinely expels migrants south into the Sahara desert. Tunisia’s Protection Ministry wouldn’t remark Tuesday on the reviews.
___
Related Press author Renata Brito in Barcelona contributed to this report.