NGOs lose contact with Tunisian migrant group, bodies found

Migrants sit during a gathering in Sfax on July 7. Tensions spiked dangerously in the Tunisian port city after three migrants were detained after the death of a local man, and there were reports of retaliation against Black foreigners and accounts of mass expulsions and alleged assaults by security forces. [AP]

Tunis, Tunisia – Human Rights Watch and Alarm Phone have confirmed that they have lost contact with a large group of Black African migrants expelled from the Tunisian city of Sfax to the Algerian border.

Another group, consisting of more than 600 migrants who were dispatched by security services to Tunisia’s border region with Libya, have since been returned to towns across southern Tunisia, where they remain under heavy guard.