Dozens of refugees found dead near Libya's border with Tunisia — Tripoli

At least 27 refugees from sub-Saharan Africa have died in recent days in Libya’s western desert near the border with Tunisia, Libyan authorities have said.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Libya’s Interior Ministry said late on Tuesday the bodies were discovered recently near the border and that a forensic team had been deployed to the area.

In the same post, the ministry published pictures of African refugees receiving treatment from Libyan medical teams.

Mohamed Hamouda, a spokesperson for the Libyan government, on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of the bodies to The Associated Press, but declined to provide any further details.

In recent months, Tunisian security forces began removing some refugees from coastal areas, busing them elsewhere and, refugees say, dumping some of them in the desert.

Earlier this month, Tunisia's interior minister admitted that small groups of sub-Saharan refugees trying to enter the country are being pushed back into the desert border areas with Libya and Algeria.

Abandoning in desert

Tunisia’s eastern coast has overtaken neighbouring Libya as the region's main launching point for refugees, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, trying to get to Italy and other parts of Europe in small boats.

With refugees pouring into the coastal city of Sfax and other launching points, tensions have risen between them and the local population.

The National Human Rights Committee in Libya, a local rights group that works with the Libyan authorities, said it believes Tunisian security forces had forcefully expelled the refugees, abandoning them in the desert without water or food.

Ahmed Hamza, head of the committee, told the AP that Libya’s border guard discovered the bodies on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Libya's border force denied recovering any dead bodies near the Tunisian border, but declined to comment further.

At least 35 bodies have been recovered from the Tunisia-Libyan border since the refugee expulsions began in July, Hamza said.

Hundreds of refugees expelled

According to statistics compiled by the committee Hamza chairs, more than 750 African immigrants have been forcibly expelled from Tunisia into Libya since July.

Black Africans in Tunisia have increasingly faced discrimination and violence since Tunisia’s President Kais Saied said that sub-Saharan refugees are part of a plot to erase the country’s identity during a speech in February.

In a separate incident on Wednesday, 41 refugees are believed to have drowned after the boat carrying them capsized off the Tunisian coast.

Libya is a major transit point for Middle Eastern and African migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to seek a better life in Europe.

The oil-rich country descended into chaos following an uprising in 2011 that toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Human traffickers have profited from Libya's decade of instability, growing rich through international smuggling networks.