Sub-Saharan migrants suffer abuse in Tunisia and Libya – UN report

Tunisia has been mistreating migrants subjecting them to refoulement, as authorities continue to round up and throw migrants in Libya where they risk torture, Reuters reported citing an unpublished UN document.

Tunisian authorities have been expelling African migrants to Libya, “where they have faced forced labor, extortion, torture and killing”, Reuters said citing a confidential U.N. human rights briefing.

The briefing, dated Jan 23, showed testimonies of 18 migrants including videos that portray the ordeal of Sub-Saharans in Tunisia and Libya, it said.

“Collective expulsions from Tunisia to Libya and the associated arbitrary detention of migrants are fueling extortion rackets and cycles of abuse, which are already widespread human rights issues in Libya,” the U.N. briefing said.

Besides authorities’ crackdown, violent clashes have taken place in many Tunisian coastal towns as locals put the blame on migrants for the degradation of economic conditions in what was once an Arab Spring success story.

President Kais Saied described migrants as “hordes” who threaten Tunisia’s identity and warned of a “great replacement,” setting the tone of an anti-migrant rhetoric followed by violations of all sorts.