NGO: Migrants abandoned near Tunisia-Algeria border rescued

A Tunisian rights group said Friday it had rescued 28 migrants and asylum seekers who were abandoned by authorities without food or water near the Tunisia-Algeria border, AFP reports. The rights group FTDES, said those rescued included seven women, three of whom were pregnant, and two children. A FTDES spokesperson Romdhane Ben Amor added that the remainder of the 42 reported missing were hiding in fear of the police. 

The migrants had been expelled from the coastal city of Sfax, Tunisia’s main departure point for Italy, and transported by authorities to the southwestern region of Gafsa, near the Algerian border. At least 25 of those rescued were from Sierra Leone, with others from Liberia and Nigeria.

Ben Amor said local authorities and the National Guard helped locate the migrants, transferring them to a police station before moving them to a shelter operated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).