Libyan border guards rescued dozens of sub-Saharan migrants they said had been dropped off by Tunisian authorities in a desert area on the border between the two countries, and left without water, food or shelter, an AFP team noted on Sunday. July 16. These journalists were able to photograph and film several groups of young men and a few women, visibly exhausted and thirsty, sitting or lying on the sand, trying to take shelter under emaciated shrubs, in temperatures exceeding 40°C.
Following clashes that claimed the life of a Tunisian on July 3, hundreds of African migrants were driven out of Sfax, Tunisia’s second city and main point of departure for illegal emigration to Europe. They were taken by Tunisian police, NGOs say, and left to fend for themselves in inhospitable areas near Libya to the east and Algeria to the west.
The migrants rescued by Libyan border guards were wandering in an uninhabited area near Al-Assah, about 150 km southwest of Tripoli and about fifteen kilometers inside Libyan territory. “The number of migrants keeps increasing every day. There, we rescued between 50 and 70 migrants. We offer them medical care, first aid, considering the journey they made in the desert,” Lieutenant Mohamad Abou Snenah, a member of a brigade that carries out border patrols, told AFP.
AFP was able to meet a group of women and children, including babies, welcomed into a center where they are seen lying on mattresses or eating yogurt. “They told us how they were mistreated by the Tunisian authorities and said they were beaten and tortured,” the officer continued, adding that his brigade is “responsible for securing this stretch of the border.”
“We don’t need you”
Abou Kouni, an Ivorian, told AFP that he arrived in Tunisia seven years ago and was brutally arrested with his wife in the street last week before being loaded into a truck. According to him, the police told them that they were going to “throw them into Libya”. When asked why, they allegedly replied, “We don’t need you in Tunisia,” before taking his phone and those of his wife.
Mr. Kouni told AFP that the police “hit” him in the chest and back, and threatened to kill him. “They put us in the desert and they fired at us saying, ‘Go to Libya!’ he said, pointing out that after a journey in the desert, they came across the Libyan police, who gave them water, food and medicine. “I’ve been walking in the desert for two days. There are 30 other people on the other side. I don’t want to go back to Tunisia anymore,” Moussa, a 20-year-old Malian, told AFP.
According to Tunisian NGOs, 100 to 150 people were still left to their fate on Friday in desert areas on the border between Libya and Tunisia. In previous days, the Tunisian Red Crescent had sheltered more than 600 migrants, released after July 3 near the Libyan border crossing at Ras Jedir, 40 km north of Al-Assah. Libya is home to at least 600,000 sub-Saharan migrants and has been repeatedly accused of mistreating them by NGOs and international organisations.
