(Source: the Guardian)

More than 1,000 migrants who fled fighting in Libya have been left without shelter in the Tunisian desert after locals burned down and looted a refugee camp on the country's border, witnesses have claimed.

At least five people were wounded when Tunisian soldiers opened fire on migrants fleeing Tuesday's attack on the UN-managed Choucha camp near the main crossing with Libya at Ras Ajdir, said Alganesc Fessaha, an Eritrean doctor who treated the victims.

The attack, which left around 1,500 residents without shelter, reflected growing resentment among locals against the migrants, mainly foreign workers from Eritrea, Somalia and the Ivory Coast.

Tensions between the two groups came to a head after refugees blockaded the road to the border to protest against being held in the camp, 4 miles from the border.

Locals then attacked the protesters with clubs and iron bars before Tunisian troops fired tear gas and warning shots in attempt to break up the fighting.

But a mob of about 300 Tunisians then attacked the camp, burning down about half the tents, Fessaha told the Guardian.

"Eritreans fleeing from the camp as it burned were beaten by locals lined up and waiting with iron bars," said Fessaha, who was also attacked as she entered the camp.

Fessaha was treating the gunshot wounds of five Sudanese men who said they had been shot by Tunisian soldiers.

"The soldiers shot at us as we fled the camp," said Abu Bakr Osman Mohammed, 39, who spent three years working in Libya and two in jail for illegal immigration before escaping as the conflict started.

"It is a miracle no one was killed," said Father Sandro De Pretis, an Italian priest based in Tripoli who is involved in the aid operation.

"They came in daylight, well organised, and army did nothing to protect the camp dwellers and may have even provided an escort as the locals burned what they could not steal. Something has to be done now for these migrants stranded in the sand."

De Pretis said the attack marked a change in the mood of Tunisians, who have hitherto offered hospitality to refugees streaming over the border , even as they struggle to rebuild their own economy after this year's popular uprising.

After first hosting Pakistanis and Bangladeshis who have now been repatriated, Choucha is now home to 3,300 Africans – including dozens saved from a leaking boat as they tried to make the perilous sea crossing to Italy earlier this month.

"At first the Tunisians brought food to the refugees but yesterday they were out of their minds," said De Pretis.

Father Mosés Zerai, the head of an asylum seekers organisation in Italy, said tensions in the camp had risen after a group of Sudanese men tried to rape an Eritrean woman last week.

"The Eritreans defended the girl and the Sudanese burned down their tents in revenge," he said.

Four Eritreans died on Sunday night as 21 tents burned down, triggering demonstrations over conditions in the camp.

Zerai said the road block was led by West Africans, including Nigerians, who are less likely to be granted asylum status and feared they would be repatriated. "They were already unhappy but after the first fire their anger exploded," he said.

Two people reportedly died in the first clashes with locals on the road on Monday.

"The protest was very stupid, since it halted commercial activity," said De Pretis. "The army did nothing and the locals took the law into their own hands."

Threats by the West Africans then prompted the UN to withdraw all its staff from the camp on Monday with one UN official describing a "general atmosphere of lawlessness in the camp."

"When the Tunisians came, the UN wasn't there," said De Pretis.

On Wednesday, officials were counting the wounded and rounding up families without shelter as apparent calm returned to the camp. Tunisian defense minister Abdul-Karim al-Zubaidi toured the camp as the police and military presence was beefed up.

"On Tuesday night, all the 3,000 or so people in the camp, even those who still had shelter, slept outdoors because they were terrified of being burned alive in their tents," said Fessaha.

Staff from the UN's refugee agency who were touring the camp on Wednesday could not be reached for comment. In Geneva, spokeswoman Sybella Wilkes said "There is a large group of refugees in the camp who have gone through hell and that is now being compounded by their insecure position there."

But according to De Petris, the return of UN staff had done little to reassure the camp's inhabitants.

"There are plenty of women and children here and we are out in the desert," said Fessaha. "You just have to say hello and you get a kilo of sand in your mouth."

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“Hotel Rwanda” Erupts at Refugee Camp in Tunisia

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Refugees, Residents clash in Southern Tunisia

TUNIS (Reuters) - Violence broke out in the southern Tunisian town of Ben Guerdan on Tuesday between residents and people from a nearby camp for refugees from Libya, witnesses said, with some reporting deaths among demonstrators.

"The military were firing in the air to disperse the two groups ... hundreds were fighting," one witness from Ben Guerdan, who said his name was Mohammed, told Reuters. "The confrontation caused many injuries, and perhaps deaths too."

Refugees from the Choucha camp, 7 km from Tunisia's border with Libya, have been demonstrating against conditions there since the death of four people in a fire on Sunday.

Violence flared after residents said the refugees, who they said were mostly Somali, Sudanese and Eritrean, blocked a road in the town for three days.

The refugees were trying to enter the centre of Ben Guerdan, but were stopped by the military, who threw tear gas and fired in the air to disperse them.

Witnesses spoke of deaths, though no official confirmation was given. One resident said there were at least three deaths.

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Four Eritreans murdered in Tunisian refugee camp on Libya border

Four Eritrean refugees were burnt to death, and one was critically injured, after their tents were deliberately set on fire at a Tunisian refugee camp close to the Libyan border in the early hours of Sunday 22 May.

Ibrahim Suleman Ahmed, Ahmed Mohamed Saleh, Jamie Mohamed and Saleh Ismail had recently fled Libya, and were waiting to be resettled in a safe third country by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Two Sudanese refugees have been arrested in connection with the deaths and remanded in custody.

According to reports, a few Sudanese refugees had been sexually harassing Eritrean female refugees in Shusha Camp, Ras Jedir. This generated tension in the camp as Eritrean men attempted to protect the women.

On Saturday 21 May, a Sudanese man reportedly entered a married couple's tent and tried to rape the woman. The Eritrean men who were nearby managed to stop him, and he was later heard saying that he would kill Eritreans in the camp.

The four victims of the blaze were not involved in the dispute and were murdered simply because of their nationality.

These are not the first murders to occur in Shusha camp. Although the UNHCR office in Tunisia is aware of these incidents, there is still no security in the camp, despite demands from refugees for greater protection. The non-governmental organisation (NGO) Human Rights Concern-Eritrea (HRC-E) has been informed that the refugees in the camp are now extremely anxious following the recent murders, and the atmosphere remains very tense. Last night the Tunisian armed forces were forced to fire in the air as tensions boiled over between refugees of Arab and African descent.

Elsa Chyrum of HRC-E said, "We call on the Tunisian government to investigate this horrendous crime, bring the perpetrators of these and other crimes to justice, provide more security personnel in the camp to preserve law and order, and to transfer the most vulnerable groups, such as women, children and the infirm, to a safer camp. "

CSW’s Advocacy Director Andrew Johnston said, “We offer our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims. CSW urges the Tunisian government and the UNHCR to take urgent action to provide round-the-clock security in the camp, in order to protect vulnerable groups and prevent the tense situation from deteriorating further. Given last night’s violence, we ask both authorities to also consider housing refugee communities that are hostile to one another in different camps. Swift intervention at this stage is vital to avoid further violence and loss of life.”

For further information, visit www.csw.org.uk.

(Source: Christian Today, Australia)

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Tunisian army fires tear gas at Libya border

(AP) –May 24, 2011

RAS AJDIR, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisian troops fired tear gas and warning shots on Tuesday to stop fighting between local residents and refugees at a camp on the border with Libya.

The U.N. refugee agency withdrew its staff from the camp because of the unrest, said spokeswoman Sybella Wilkes in Geneva and spokesman Firas Kayal in Tunisia.

At one point, an angry crowd of about 100 Tunisians fighting with the refugees at the Choucha refugee camp in Ras Ajdir used iron bars and clubs to attack a car carrying journalists covering the unrest. Ahmed Bahadou, a freelance video journalist on assignment for The Associated Press, said the attackers tried to pull him and the Tunisian driver from the vehicle.

The journalists, including American freelance photographer Gaia Anderson and French radio producer Marine Olivesi, eventually sped away, but not before equipment such as a satellite telephone was stolen, Bahadou said in an interview.

No casualties were immediately reported at the camp of 3,500 refugees on Tuesday, but violence earlier this week has killed people.

Wilkes said tensions escalated Sunday when some of the refugees staged a protest because they believed they were going to be sent back to their home countries. Four Eritrean refugees died when a fire spread through the Choucha camp, raising tension among its residents, she said.

In response, UNHCR, the Red Cross Federation and the Emirati Red Crescent withdrew their staff from the camp, fearing for their safety.

On Monday the protesters blocked a highway near the camp, angering locals and sparking clashes during which at least two people died, Wilkes in an interview. That prompted the UNHCR to call in Tunisian authorities to restore order.

"We understand there is a general atmosphere of lawlessness in the camp," Wilkes said. "We are obviously very worried about the refugees."

Refugees blocked the main cross-border highway again on Tuesday, prompting more fighting between refugees and local residents.

Tunisian troops moved in and fired tear gas and warning shots to restore order, a witness said on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

The refugees — mostly foreigners from Eritrea, Somalia and Ivory Coast who had moved to Libya to work, then fled its unrest — are frustrated at being kept in the camps so long.

In all, tens of thousands of refugees have fled Libya's fighting to Tunisia, which is struggling to rebuild its economy after a popular uprising forced out its longtime president.

That uprising unleashed a wave of pro-democracy protests now taking place in the Arab world.

Frank Jordans in Paris and Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.