The Tunisian National Human Rights Committee expresses its concern about the transfer of migrants to the border with Libya

The Tunisian Human Rights Observatory denies these practices

July 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Tunisian National Human Rights Committee has shown its concern on Thursday over recent reports on the death of three people on the border between Libya and Tunisia due to lack of water and food in half of “remote” desert areas with high temperatures.

“These victims, who died as a result of the inhuman suffering they went through, were among the migrants who were transferred by the Tunisian authorities (…) to the Libyan-Tunisian border,” the organization said in statements collected by the Libyan state agency LANA.

The committee has asked the Government of Tunisia to stop “immediately” carrying out these deportations of irregular migrants and asylum seekers to Libya so that this country becomes “responsible” for them.

In addition, they have urged the authorities to provide “necessary” and “dignified” care to these people and to allow the intervention of humanitarian organizations.

For his part, the secretary of the Tunisian Observatory for Human Rights, Mustafa Abdel Kabir, has denied these accusations and has stated that the Tunisian Army “protects the borders” and “delivers humanitarian aid” to migrants within Tunisian territory.

Kabir has indicated that entry into the country is only possible through legal channels and in coordination with the security forces established at the borders.

The transfer of irregular migrants to the border, according to the secretary, was carried out within 48 hours of their entry onto Tunisian soil in coordination with the Tunisian Red Crescent and in compliance with international laws.

It should be remembered that numerous NGOs have accused the Tunisian government 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 Europe.