At least 630 migrants stranded in Tunisia’s desert borders after being expelled from the port of Sfax have been rescued by Red Crescent volunteers as others appealed for help.
Red Crescent volunteers took the migrants from Tunisia and Libya to a high school in Ben Guerdane, 40 kilometers west of Ras Jedir, providing them food, water, mattresses and makeshift shelters on Sunday and Monday.
Two other groups of stranded migrants have been taken to Medenine and Tataouine, further south.
Abdellatif Chabou, president of the Tunisian Red Crescent, told Agence France-Presse the charity had been authorized to pick up the migrants.
Chabou said that just 200 migrants from those picked up near the border with Libya said they wanted to go home. Most of the others asked to be taken to Europe.
Other stranded migrants sent a video distress call to Human Rights Watch on Wednesday, which it transmitted to AFP.
“We are suffering. There are children, pregnant women. We’re suffering here. We have not eaten anything since yesterday. We’re going to die if we don’t get help. Help us!” pleads one.
HRW said there are at least 100 migrants without food, water or shelter, and that some have been stuck there for several days.
Non-government organizations are also concerned about the fate of dozens of other migrants, estimated by HRW to number between 150 and 200, scattered along Tunisia’s western border with Algeria.
On Tuesday, a judiciary spokesperson told AFP that the bodies of two
sub-Saharans had been found in the Hazoua desert near Algeria