In Tunisia, over 500 sub-Saharan migrants have disappeared after two temporary camps were raided by security forces in the capital, Tunis on Friday.
The migrants were captured by Tunisian security forces from the two camps and forced onto buses destined for the Algeria border, Al Jazeera reported.
Since then, reports suggest the migrants were abandoned or expelled to Libya. The association “Refugees in Libya” posted a video on X writing: “Footage recorded on May 2, 2024 at the border region of Libya-Tunisia shows the exchange of migrants and refugees caught at gunpoint from Sfax and Tunis.”
The association claims the practice of “state-to-state human trafficking” has been happening since July of last year.
The same week the footage was released, Tunisia’s President Kais Saied verified the claims of migrant exchanges, while blaming “others” who, he claims, are responsible for the migration crisis occurring in Tunisia.
President Saied has repeatedly made headlines for making racist remarks directed at migrants. Last year, reports critiqued him as he insinuated that the growing black migrant population will change Tunisia’s demographic.
The North African country has been the place for many displaced migrants who have fled their countries trying to reach Europe.
The association “Mediterranea Saving Humans” and “Refugees in Libya” recently published testimonies from survivors of a shipwreck that occurred on April 5, 2024.
The incident involved an 8-meter-long iron boat that reportedly had 42 migrants on board. Shortly after leaving El Amra coast in Algeria, one survivor said: “A boat approached several times to allow the Tunisian National Guard officials hit our engines with a metal bar.”
The same source said the officials then damaged the stern of the boat, causing it to sink, many migrants drowned, and only one child survived.
The cases reported in recent times are similar to incidents last year, which led the International Organization for Migration and the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR to publicly appeal for urgent solutions when more migrants were abandoned on the Tunisia-Libya borders.
“Women (including some who are pregnant) and children. They are stuck in the desert, facing extreme heat, and without access to shelter, food or water,” the joint appeal read.