HRW calls on the Tunisian government to stop the collective expulsions of migrants

The NGO denounces that the Tunisian security forces have abused people before abandoning them in the desert

July 7 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has asked the Tunisian government to stop the collective expulsions of migrants and has denounced that the Tunisian security forces have abused those expelled before abandoning them in the desert.

“The Tunisian government should stop collective expulsions and urgently allow humanitarian access to African migrants and asylum seekers who have already been expelled to a dangerous area on the Tunisian-Libyan border, with little food and no medical care,” he said. declared HRW migrant rights researcher Lauren Seibert, according to a statement.

“Not only is it inconceivable to abuse people and abandon them in the desert, but collective expulsions violate International Law,” denounced the researcher, who has indicated that the authorities must carry out evaluations of the individual legal situation in accordance with the due process before deporting someone.

Likewise, Seibert has urged the Tunisian government to investigate the security forces involved in the abuses. He has also indicated that the diplomatic delegations of African countries should try to locate and evacuate any of their nationals expelled to the border, while he has called on the African Union Commission to condemn abusive expulsions and put pressure on the country. to provide immediate assistance to those affected.

Tunisian security forces have expelled hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers, including women and children, to a remote area on the country’s border with Libya. The group of those affected also includes people with regular legal status in the country.

According to witnesses consulted by HRW, the Tunisian authorities have expelled between 500 and 700 people since last Sunday, July 2. Those expelled were of various African nationalities – Ivorians, Cameroonians, Malians, Sudanese, among others – and there were at least 29 children and three pregnant women.

The interviewees have indicated to the NGO that they had been arrested in raids by the Police, the National Guard or the Army in or around the city of Sfax, a port town, one of the main departure points for migrants to Europe. The people with whom HRW has consulted have affirmed that several people have died in the border area, some from bullet wounds or blows by the military.

No non-governmental groups had access to the area, so Human Rights Watch has been unable to independently confirm these accounts.

The security forces sent the detainees 300 kilometers away, to a point on the border with Libya, where they were trapped, unable to enter Libyan territory or return to Tunisia.

However, the situation in Sfax has also become complicated in recent weeks, when residents have campaigned for foreigners to leave, going so far as to attack migrants and several clashes have resulted in the death of at least except one man from Benin and one Tunisian.

Tunisian President Kais Saied made a speech in February that sparked a wave of racist attacks against black Africans, as he linked undocumented migrants to crime and a ‘plot’ to alter the country’s demographic makeup.

Saied called on Tuesday to restore security in Sfax, insisting that the country “will never be a border guard” for other countries, that it will act as a transit or residence zone for asylum seekers and that it will reject illegal migrants.

It should be remembered that numerous NGOs have accused the president of encouraging a campaign of xenophobic violence against sub-Saharan migrants who use the country as a springboard to reach Europe. And it is that Tunisia has become in recent years one of the main starting points for boats with which migrants from the country and those arriving from sub-Saharan Africa try to make the crossing through the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe.