Tripoli: The interior ministry in Tripoli reported on Tuesday that Libyan border guards have found the bodies of several migrants in a desert region where many are said to have been taken against their will by Tunisian authorities.
The interior ministry issued a statement stating that border agents "have discovered five unidentified bodies of irregular migrants of African origin during a patrol in the Dahr Al-Khass area" close to the Tunisian border.
Since the middle of July, Libyan border guards have rescued dozens of migrants who claimed Tunisian authorities had taken them to an uninhabited area close to Al-Assah, which is about 15 kilometres (15 miles) inside Libyan territory and 150 kilometres (93 miles) west of Tripoli.
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AFP reporters have observed migrant groups that had trekked through the desert in the sweltering summer heat, looking obviously exhausted and dehydrated. Video footage posted online by border agents depicts migrants crossing the Tunisian border on foot.
Following the death of a Tunisian man in a clash between locals and migrants at the beginning of July, racial tensions caused hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan African nations to flee the port city of Sfax in Tunisia.
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Tunisia serves as a landing point for migrants and asylum seekers who attempt perilous sea voyages in search of a better life in Europe. Lampedusa, an Italian island, is just 130 kilometres away.
Following reports that dozens of migrants had been abandoned by Tunisian police in the desert near Libya, independent UN experts urged Tunisia to stop the "collective expulsions" of migrants on July 18.
"We call on the authorities to immediately halt any further deportations and to continue and expand humanitarian access to a dangerous area on the Tunisian-Libyan border where many, including pregnant women and children, have already been deported," the expert panel stated in a statement.
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Since Muammar Qaddafi's overthrow in 2011, human traffickers in Libya have long benefited from the chaos, and the nation has been accused of mistreating migrants.
Rights organisations have claimed that migrants are subjected to abhorrent treatment by smuggling gangs and in state-run detention facilities. Authorities and armed organisations acting on behalf of the state have frequently been charged with torturing, raping, and other abuses. An estimated 600,000 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa reside there.