Migrants forcibly relocated to desert without food or water in 40-degree heat

Sub-Saharan African migrants are left in a deserted area near the border town of Al-Assa in Libya. Credit: AFP/MAHMUD TURKIA

Tunisian authorities have left dozens of migrants in the desert without food or water, and the number is “growing,” the officer said.

Hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have been forcibly removed into the desert and hostile areas bordering Libya and Algeria after the early July race riots in Sfax, Tunisia's second largest city.

Migrants, who were visibly emaciated and dehydrated, could be seen lying on sand and bushes to protect themselves from the scorching summer heat, the temperature of which exceeded 40 ° C.

The group was located in a deserted area near Al-Assa, a city near the Tunisian-Libyan border, about 150 km west of Tripoli.

Two men try to shelter from the scorching heat Photo: AFP/MAHMUD TURKIA

“The number of migrants continues to rise every day,” Mohamad Abu Snena of the border patrol unit told Associated Foreign Press. adding that they rescued “between 50 and 70 migrants”.

“We offer them medical assistance, first aid, given the journey they have made through the desert.”

A group of women and children, including babies, were at the reception center.

Abu Cooney, an Ivorian migrant who came to Tunisia seven years ago, said he was detained on the street last week and put in a truck with his wife.

He told AFP that he was “hit” in the torso and back and that the police threatened to kill him.

The Tunisian police, according to Abu Kuni, “said they were going to abandon us in Libya”, and told him: “We don't need you in Tunisia.”

A border guard says the number of migrants continues to rise every day. Photo: AFP/MAHMUD TURKIA

In a video posted online, one officer can be heard saying: Do you see them? Sad. They are being expelled from Tunisia to Libya.”

The video also shows a migrant rescued from the border area on Saturday, who says that “the Tunisian police deported us to Libya.”

Ibrahim , a Congolese migrant who used to live in the Tunisian city of Zarzis said he was stopped in the street as he was returning from work.

“They dropped us off in the desert,” he said. “We have been in the desert for many days. We saw a shepherd who gave us bread and water.”

Hundreds of migrants fled or were forced to leave Tunisian Sfax after racial tensions erupted following the July 3 murder of a Tunisian following a row between locals and migrants. .