In a span of two weeks, The Gambia has repatriated 296 migrants, more than half of whom were trapped in Libya, according to a statement from the Ministry of foreign affairs on Sunday.
A ministry official stated that 140 Gambians were returned home between June 21 and July 4 as a result of authorities in Senegal, Mauritania, and Morocco seizing boats conveying people from the west African country.
According to a statement from the ministry, there were 231 Gambians aboard the three boats, but many of them “absconded” before being brought back.
On June 24, it was reported that 156 Gambians who had been trapped in Libya had been returned.
Human Rights Watch claimed on Thursday that since July 2, when there was violence against migrants in the city of Sfax, Tunisia has been sending hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans to a desert region close to the Libyan border.
“Regarding the disturbing video of migrants in Tunisia circulating on social media, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is closely working… to ascertain their numbers and verify their nationalities as part of the evacuation procedures,” the statement said.
A surge of racist attacks in Tunisia prompted many West African countries, including Burkina Faso, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Mali, and Senegal, to deport hundreds of their people earlier this year.
It came after a tirade by the president of Tunisia in which he accused “hordes of illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa” of committing crimes and claimed that there was a “criminal plot” to alter the demographics of the nation.
Early this year, some 48 Gambian Migrants were on board the vessel that had sunk in the Mediterranean Sea, resulting in the death of dozens of migrants while several others were missing. Libyan Coast Guards reported that 48 Gambian Nationals including Activist, Abubacarr Leigh, who died after capturing the footage, and recovered after the boat sank and taken back to Tripoli.
This came following the cancellation of the migrants’ flight, which was reserved and facilitated by IOM and the Government, in a bid to repatriate almost four hundred Gambian migrants believed to be in detention.
