Tunisian security forces expelled some 500 sub-Saharan migrants from a square in the center of Sfax, the country’s second city, on Sunday after chasing them from their homes in early July. This expulsion is part of a vast security campaign led by the authorities against illegal migrants.
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Tension persists in Tunisia’s second city. Some 500 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were expelled on Sunday September 17 by Tunisian security forces from a square in the center of Sfax after being chased from their homes in early July, an NGO said.
“Security forces evacuated on Sunday morning a square where around 500 migrants were gathered in the center of Sfax,” Romdane Ben Amor, spokesperson for the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), told AFP. an NGO which closely follows the migration issue in Tunisia. According to him, the migrants “were dispersed in small groups towards rural areas and other cities”.
Since Saturday, the authorities have been carrying out a vast security campaign against illegal migrants, most of whom come from sub-Saharan African countries. They announced the arrest of nearly 200 sub-Saharan migrants “who were preparing to make an illegal crossing” to European coasts.
Read alsoTunisia: the city of Sfax sinks into chaos, between migration crisis and absence of the State
Following an incendiary speech in February by President Kaïs Saïed on illegal immigration, hundreds of sub-Saharan migrants lost their jobs and homes in Tunisia. Attacks have been recorded and several thousand have had to be repatriated by their embassies.
In early July, hundreds more were chased out of the city of Sfax and expelled by Tunisian security forces, including to a desert border area with Libya where at least 27 died and 73 were missing.
With AFP
Source: France 24
