Tunisia, Libya announce deal on migrants stranded on border

Migrants were allegedly trying to sail toward Europe on small boats when they were intercepted by Tunisian coast guards and escorted back to the Tunisian shore. (File/AFP)

• Migrants, primarily from sub-Saharan African countries, taken to desert area of Ras Jedir by Tunisian authorities
• Three groups of about 300 migrants in total remain stranded

TUNIS: Tunisia and Libya announced on Thursday they had agreed to share responsibility for providing shelter for hundreds of migrants stranded in a border area, many of them for a month.
A spokesman for Tunisia’s interior ministry, Faker Bouzghaya, said during a joint meeting with Libyan authorities in Tunis that “we have agreed to share the groups of migrants who are at the border.”
The migrants, primarily from sub-Saharan African countries, had been taken to the desert area of Ras Jedir by Tunisian authorities, according to witnesses, rights groups and UN agencies.
Aid groups said three groups of about 300 migrants in total remain stranded there.
“Tunisia will take charge of a group of 76 men, 42 women and eight children,” Bouzghaya told AFP.
He said the groups were transferred on Wednesday to reception centers in the cities of Tatouine and Medenine and provided with health and psychological care, with the help of the Tunisian Red Crescent.
Under the agreement, Libya will take charge of the remaining 150 migrants, humanitarian sources said.
The Libyan interior ministry earlier on Thursday announced the bilateral agreement to “put an end to the crisis of irregular migrants stranded in the border area.”
Racial tensions had flared in Tunisia’s second city of Sfax after the July 3 killing of a Tunisian man following an altercation with migrants.
Up to 1,200 black Africans were “expelled, or forcibly transferred by Tunisian security forces” to desert border regions with Libya and Algeria, Human Rights Watch said.
Crossing attempts have multiplied in March and April following a incendiary speech by President Kais Saied who had alleged that “hordes” of irregular migrants were causing crime and posing a demographic threat to the mainly Arab country.
Humanitarian officials have reported at least 25 deaths of migrants abandoned in the Tunisian-Libyan border area since last month.
Xenophobic attacks targeting black African migrants and students have increased across the country since Saied’s February remarks, and many migrants have lost jobs and housing.
The two countries are major gateways for migrants and asylum seekers primarily from other parts of Africa, attempting perilous voyages in often rickety boats in the hopes of a better life.