By Ebi Kesiena
Tunisia and Libya announced on Thursday that they have agreed to share responsibility for providing shelter for hundreds of migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, stranded at their border.
According to witnesses, rights groups and United Nations agencies, the migrants, many of whom have been stranded for over a month, had been driven to the desert area of Ras Jedir by Tunisian authorities and left there to fend for themselves,
Aid groups noted that three groups of about 300 migrants from sub-Saharan African countries in total remain stranded there in life-threatening conditions.
A spokesman for Tunisia’s interior ministry, Faker Bouzghaya, said during a joint meeting with Libyan authorities in Tunis that “we have agreed to share the groups of migrants who are at the border.”
“Tunisia will take charge of a group of 76 men, 42 women and eight children,” Bouzghaya told AFP.
He said the groups were transferred on Wednesday to reception centers in the cities of Tatouine and Medenine and provided with health and psychological care, with the help of the Tunisian Red Crescent.
Under the agreement, Libya will take in the remaining 150-200 migrants, humanitarian sources said.
In the same vein, the Libyan interior ministry earlier on Thursday announced the bilateral agreement to “put an end to the crisis of irregular migrants stranded in the border area.”
In a later statement, it said there were no more migrants stranded at the border following the agreement, adding that joint patrols were being organized to secure the border.
