Human rights organizations claim that North African countries are illegally transporting migrants to the desert and even with European funding. We live in fear every day, says Mamadou from Chad. He is hiding, like many other migrants, in an olive grove in Tunisia. He asks DW not to reveal his real name for fear of reprisals if he is found by the authorities. He is said to have failed to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa earlier this month with the help of smugglers. On the microphone of DW he declares from his hiding place: “They call us “Africans”, as if Tunisia is not part of Africa. The coast guard is the one that turned us back. They take our cell phones and if we have money, they take it too.”

The olive grove is located near the port of Sfax in the Mediterranean. Mamadou claims he walked about 240 kilometers into the desert where he was taken along with many other migrants by the country’s authorities. It is estimated that around 80,000 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa are currently hiding in the surrounding olive groves, waiting for the opportunity to leave for Europe.

A few days ago the investigative journalist Lighthouse Reports published, in collaboration with various international media, a report on the increase of the so-called “desert dumps”. After a year-long investigation the cooperating journalists concluded that the Tunisian National Guard plays a leading role in these operations and that much of the funding comes from European countries.

Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, Libya deport to the desert

Lauren Seibert, a researcher at Human Rights Watch and an expert on refugee and migrant rights, said what Mamadou and others experienced was an illegal mass deportation to what she now calls the “desert dumps.”

Speaking to DW, the German expert says that Algeria, Libya and Mauritania have been deporting en masse to the desert for years, but in Tunisia this practice became much more systematic during the last year: “This is an ongoing practice, which violates human rights and is recorded in almost all the countries of northern Africa. Unfortunately the phenomenon is exacerbated by increasing EU funding, which asks these countries to control immigration and prevent people from reaching Europe. In essence, the funding encourages mass deportations, which constitute a violation of international law.”

During 2023 the EU proceeded to conclude migration agreements with a number of countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia to keep migrants on their soil.

According to the French news agency AFP, the EU has not responded directly to the claims of the international research network Lighthouse Reports, despite the fact that the representative of the European Commission Anna Pisonero admitted that “sometimes the situation in the partner countries is a challenge. However, they are sovereign states and therefore decide what their authorities do.” In response, expert Lauren Seibert emphasizes that the Commission maintains that it does not support mass deportations: “It could, however, draw a clear dividing line between European funding and the practice of deportations.”

Editor: Stefanos Georgakopoulos