At least 27 people from sub-Saharan Africa have died in recent days after being expelled from Tunisia towards the Libya border and abandoned in the desert in relentless heat, according to Libyan authorities.
Libyan border guards found the bodies “in the desert [in] a vast area to the south of the northern crossing”, Al Jazeera’s Malik Traina, reporting from the Libyan city of Misrata, said on Wednesday.
“It’s extremely hot with temperatures over 40 degrees [Celsius, 104 degrees Fahrenheit],” Traina said, adding that refugees and migrants said they had been forced to walk for days without water, food or shelter.
Libyan border guards and rights groups accuse Tunisia of expelling refugees and migrants across the frontier into a featureless wilderness far from towns or villages in the height of summer as part of a crackdown that Human Rights Watch said amounted to “collective expulsions“.
Tunisia began expelling Black African migrants and asylum seekers in July after days of violence in the port city of Sfax in which one Tunisian was killed.
Locals have complained about the refugees’ behaviour while the refugees said they have been subjected to racist attacks.
Post from www.aljazeera.com