TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia’s interior minister conceded that small groups of sub-Saharan migrants trying to enter the country are pushed back into the desert border areas with Libya and Algeria, but labeled as “false allegations” claims by the U.N., humanitarian groups and migrants themselves of mistreatment. In an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, Kamel Fekih said that while there is no “collective” expulsion of migrants, small groups trying to enter Tunisia are pushed back into the desert no man’s land. There are currently some 80,000 undocumented migrants in Tunisia, concentrated on the coast, with 17,000 in Sfax, he said. The interior minister reiterated, without elaborating, more recent claims by Saied that an organ trafficking business has sprouted up around migrants. Because Tunisia has no borders with sub-Saharan Africa, migrants are forced to pass through Algeria or Libya — which do — to reach Tunisia, Fetih noted.

Source: Libya Today August 04, 2023 09:38 UTC