Walking until exhaustion, hundreds of African migrants enter Libya every day, after being abandoned at the border, in the middle of the desert, by the Tunisian security forces, according to their testimonies and those of the Libyan border guard.
(You can read: Migration record in Darién: 248,900 people have crossed the jungle so far in 2023)
A hundred migrants were rescued by Libyan guards on Sunday as they wandered in an uninhabited arid area near Sebjat al Magta, a salt lake, along the Tunisian-Libyan border, an AFP team found.
It is noon, when the heat is most unbearable and exceeds 40 degrees. A patrol finds a man passed out and tries to revive him by pouring a few drops of water on his lips. He hardly breathes. In the distance, six black dots can be distinguished. A few minutes later, these migrants explain in Arabic that they come from Tunisia.
For about two weeks, Libyan border guards say they have rescued hundreds of migrants, abandoned at the border, according to them, by the Tunisian authorities, near the town of Al Assah, 150 kilometers southwest of Tripoli.
(Also: Putin says he is studying Africa’s proposal for a way out of the conflict with Ukraine)
Following clashes between migrants and residents, which caused the death of a Tunisian on July 3, hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans were expelled from Sfax, the main starting point in Tunisia for clandestine migration to Europe.
They collapse, exhausted
According to the NGO Human Rights Watch, at least “1,200 sub-Saharan citizens” were “expelled” by the Tunisian security forces towards the borders with Libya, in the east, and with Algeria, in the west.
The Tunisian Red Crescent later welcomed more than 600 in Ras Jedir, an area that separates Tunisia from Libya, and another 200 on the Algerian side.
(Keep reading: United Nations suspends its humanitarian operations in Niger after coup)
But near Al Assah, 40 kilometers south of Ras Jedir, they continue to arrive, disoriented, in groups of two or three, or by dozens. Exhausted by heat and thirst, they collapse at the feet of the guards.
“We are on the demarcation line between Libya and Tunisia and we see more and more migrants arriving every day,” explains Ali Wali, spokesman for the Libyan military unit Battalion 19.
In their radius of action of 15 kilometers around Al Assah, they recover “according to the days, 150, 200, 350, and sometimes up to 400/500 clandestines,” he says. This time there are 110, including two women.
Two others, mentioned by a migrant, were not found. The survivors crossed the border unknowingly, walking in the direction indicated by the Tunisian police: Libya.
two days of march
Haytham Yahiya is Sudanese. He had been working for a year in the construction sector in Tunisia, where he arrived clandestinely via Niger and Algeria.
“I was at work when they caught me and brought me here, first in a police car, then in a military truck and then they abandoned me, telling me to go to Libya,” he says.
Under a scorching sun, without water or food, some of them have “walked for two days.”
This is the case of Alexander Unche Okolo, who arrived illegally “in Tunisia through Algeria”. He spent a short time in the capital, when he was recently “arrested on the street” and then “taken to the Sahara desert”, explains the 41-year-old Nigerian.
Still shaken, he shows the screen of his phone: “they broke it and beat me,” he says.
According to the military spokesman Wali, on Saturday “two bodies were found, and two days before, another five, including that of a woman and her baby, in addition to another five found a week ago.”
“How do you want them to survive this? With the heat, without water and walking for two, three days,” he exclaims.
According to humanitarian organizations in Libya, contacted by AFP, the balance is at least 17 deaths in the last three weeks.
In Ras Jedir, some 350 migrants survive in a precarious camp, including 65 children and 12 pregnant women. “Their living conditions are very problematic,” explains a humanitarian official in Libya.
Another 180 migrants, including some 20 minors, have received temporary accommodation in Al Assah, it adds.
AFP Agency
#drama #African #migrants #abandoned #LibyanTunisian #border