Human rights observers say the Tunisian authorities are conducting illegal “collective expulsions” of migrants, with funds from the European Union. They say that the practice is becoming increasingly common.

The fear is there, day and night, said Mamadou from Chad, who asked that DW not use his full name for fear of reprisals, recounting what happened to him earlier this month after he failed to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa with the help of human traffickers.

“The Tunisian Coast Guard officers took our cell phones and our money, then they drove us to the Libyan border where they stripped us and left us alone,” he told DW from his hiding place: An olive grove near Tunisia’s port city of Sfax. He said he had walked around 240 kilometers (ca. 150 miles) through the desert to get there.