According to the AFP news agency, hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan African countries have been forcibly taken to the desert on the border between Libya and Algeria after racial riots broke out in the Tunisian city of Sfax.
Libyan border guards have rescued dozens of migrants who were left in the desert by the Tunisian authorities without water and food, the AFP news agency reported on Sunday.
Hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan African countries have been forcibly taken to the desert on the border between Libya and Algeria in the beginning of July after racial unrest in the Tunisian city of Sfax.
The team of the AFP news agency says that they saw clearly exhausted and dehydrated migrants sitting or lying on the sand on the border between Libya and Tunisia. They had taken shelter in the shade of the bushes to get shelter from the scorching, over 40 degree heat. The migrants were in an uninhabited area on the border, near the Libyan city of Al Assah.
– The number of immigrants is increasing every day, representative of the Libyan Border Guard Mohamad Abou Snenah told AFP.
According to him, they have rescued 50-70 migrants from the desert, and more are still coming.
– We offer them first aid after an exhausting journey through the desert
A Congolese who lived in the town of Zarzis in Tunisia Ibrahim told AFP he was picked up by police on the street as he was returning from work.
– They left us in the desert, he said.
– We have been here for many days. A shepherd gave us bread and water.
Hundreds of migrants fled or were forced out of Sfax, Tunisia, after racial unrest broke out. They were ignited when a Tunisian man was murdered in a dispute between locals and migrants on July 3.
The port of Tunisia’s second largest city, Sfax, serves as a point of departure for many migrants from poor and violence-torn countries who seek a better life in Europe by making the perilous boat journey across the Mediterranean.
In Libya, human traffickers have long profited from the country’s chaos since Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in 2011. The country has been accused of exploiting migrants.
Tunisian human rights groups said on Friday that between 100 and 150 migrants were still stuck at the Libyan border. The Tunisian Red Crescent said it had provided shelter to more than 600 migrants who had been taken since July 3 to the militarized area of Ras Jedir, north of Al Assah.
Source: AFP