Tunisia: The migration trap

Asylum seekers from across Africa are becoming stranded, unable to return home and persecuted by authorities.

Sub-Saharan African refugees and migrants fleeing northwards away from war, conflict and corrupt governments are ending up trapped in Tunisia, unable to move on to Europe or return home.

Across Tunisia, signs of growing hostility towards these arrivals are apparent.

The thousands living in makeshift camps are under pressure from a frustrated population and a government that analysts say is out of options.

On Friday, security forces raided two temporary camps and a protest site in the capital, Tunis, forcing more than 500 refugees onto buses to the Algerian border where they were abandoned. Some others may have been expelled to Libya.

The Refugees in Libya organisation described a wretched journey for the asylum seekers, many travelling with infants, who were refused help from hostile people in Tunisia and blocked from accessing transport back to Tunis.