Tunisia has been urged to put an end to "collective expulsions" of black African migrants to a desert area near the Libyan border.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Friday that black African migrants and asylum seekers, including children and pregnant women, had been left stranded in a remote desert area in the south of Tunisia since being driven out of the port city of Sfax in the past week.
It comes against a backdrop of violence after the funeral of a 41-year-old Tunisian man who was stabbed to death in Sfax on Monday in a brawl between Tunisians and migrants.
Sfax, the North African country's second-largest city, is a departure point for many hoping to reach Europe by sea, often the Italian island of Lampedusa about 130 kilometres away.
Pregnant women
"Tunisian security forces have collectively expelled several hundred Black African migrants and asylum seekers, including children and pregnant women, since July 2, to a remote, militarised buffer zone at the Tunisia-Libya border," HRW said in a statement.
"Many reported violence by authorities during arrest or expulsion," the New York-based watchdog said in its statement.
It urged Tunisia's government to "halt collective expulsions and urgently enable humanitarian access to the African migrants and asylum seekers already expelled to a dangerous area".
Tunisia has seen a rise in racially motivated attacks after President Kais Saied in February accused "hordes" of undocumented migrants of bringing violence and alleging a "criminal plot" to change the country's demographic make-up.
