Humanitarian organisations continue to criticise Tunisia for its treatment of sub-Saharan migrants, even as the country denies it is expelling the migrants to its borders with Libya and Algeria.
The international NGO Avocats Sans Frontieres (“Lawyers without Borders”) called the expulsions “illegal” on Friday.
“These expulsions are very clearly illegal,” the group told Al Jazeera. “Migrants should not be sent back to situations of destitution or inhospitable conditions in which their safety or their human rights would be threatened, for example in cases of expulsions to the “no man’s lands” between borders.”
But on Thursday, Tunisian Interior Minister Kamel Fekih disputed comments made by United Nations deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq on Tuesday, when the latter said that the UN was “deeply concerned” about the expulsions.
The UN also demanded that refugees and migrants stranded in the desert be relocated.
“What was published by certain international organisations, and especially the statement by the UN spokesperson, is characterised by inaccuracy and even untruths,” the TAP news agency quoted Fekih as saying.
Link from www.aljazeera.com