Migrants trapped on border transferred back to Tunisia

Tunis [Tunisia], July 12: At least 500 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have been transferred back to Tunisia after being pushed into a dangerous no-man's-land on the Libyan border and trapped for a week there without access to basic necessities, aid agencies said Tuesday.
The group was driven out earlier this month amid a spike in anti-migrant and racism-fuelled tensions linked to a killing in the Tunisian port city of Sfax, a hub for traffickers organising risky and sometimes deadly boat journeys across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy, AP reported.
One such boat sank on Sunday off the Tunisian coast. Coast guard officers retrieved one body, rescued 11 people and declared 10 others as missing, the Sfax prosecutor's office said.
The fate of hundreds of migrants pushed into the Tunisia-Libya border region drew concern from international humanitarian groups. It also raised questions about Tunisia's migration policies, weeks after the European Union offered Tunisia's increasingly authoritarian government $1bn to help its slumping economy - and to beef up border services to stop migrant boats from crossing to Europe.
Tunisian Red Crescent spokesperson Mounir Ksiksi said on Tuesday that about 500 people from sub-Saharan Africa who had been trapped in the border zone were transferred Monday to other regions of Tunisia.
Source: Qatar Tribune