Thousands of migrants, mostly sub-Saharans, are camped north of Sfax, Tunisia, waiting to cross into Italy, after being persecuted by security forces, according to humanitarian organizations and testimonies provided to AFP.
Some have been there since early September, when authorities stopped distributing food to the 1,800 migrants gathered in central Sfax, according to a humanitarian source who requested anonymity.
Migrants “dispersed” to rural areas
A first group of hundreds of people left and then others followed around September 14 and 15. On September 17, authorities evacuated hundreds more, during a “large operation made public,” the source told AFP.
That day, about 500 migrants were evacuated and “dispersed in small groups to rural areas,” Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesperson for FTDES, an NGO specialized in migration, told AFP. According to the humanitarian source, they were “taken by police to the Al Amra area by bus.”
“I want to go to Europe”
“I came to work and earn some money, I couldn’t find it and I want to go to Europe,” Mohamed Kayta, a young Malian, told AFP. “The Africans you see here have only one idea in mind: to cross the Mediterranean,” added Sanogo Sadio, an Ivorian, stating that “they have nowhere to sleep.”
Despite their precarious conditions, “they do not want to be too visible because it is an area of clandestine departures,” the humanitarian source stressed.
Il s’agit en majorité de “migrants arrivés récemment en provenance d’Algérie et de Libye”, at-elle ajouté, précisant qu’ils n’ont rien à voir avec ceux qui ont été “expulsés de Sfax” pendant l ‘Verano .
Immigrants expelled from Sfax this summer
After a fight that ended with the death of a Tunisian, “at least 2,000 sub-Saharan migrants” were expelled from Sfax from early July to early August and forcibly taken by police to inhospitable areas on the borders with Libya and Algeria, according to AFP humanitarian sources. At least 27 have died in the Tunisian-Libyan desert and 73 are missing.
In recent months, Sfax has been the epicenter of illegal departures to Italy, a country that has received more than 130,000 immigrants since the beginning of the year, double that of the previous year. Tunisia’s National Guard announced it had thwarted 117 crossing attempts last weekend, intercepted or rescued 2,507 migrants and arrested 62 smugglers.
Source: BFM TV
