Dozens of refugees and migrants in Tunisia, mostly survivors of illegal immigration attempts by sea to Europe, are demanding evacuation to other countries.
The refugees, have been staging a sit-in in front of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the Tunisian capital, Tunis since Saturday.
Equipped with blankets, the refugees, many of whom are women and children, spend the night on cardboard boxes spread out on the ground amid suitcases containing their personal belongings.
They denounced the United Nations’ inaction.
Migrants and refugees in Tunisia, particularly from sub-Saharan Africa, regularly complain of being subjected to verbal and physical abuse in Tunisia.
The majority of these migrants were rescued off the coast of Tunisia after their boats capsized while they were trying to reach the European continent clandestinely.
According to statistics from the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, the Tunisian coastguard intercepted 25,657 migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean in 2021, almost double the number from the previous year.
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