The Gambia announced on Sunday, July 9, 2023, that it had repatriated nearly 300 of its nationals intercepted on the exile route at the end of June and beginning of July, more than half of whom were stranded in Libya.
Between 21 June and 4 July, Banjul repatriated 140 Gambians intercepted by Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco on board three boats carrying migrants from West Africa, said a spokeswoman for the Gambian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A total of 231 Gambians were in the boats, but some fled before they could be repatriated, according to the ministry.
Earlier this year, West African countries including Burkina Faso, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and Senegal repatriated hundreds of their nationals from Tunisia, which was the scene of racist attacks.
An increasingly openly xenophobic attitude towards these migrants has spread since the Tunisian President, Kais Saied, slammed illegal immigration in February.
He accused the "hordes of illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa" of fuelling crime and presented them as a demographic threat to his country, hit by a socio-economic crisis that has worsened since he assumed full power in July 2021.
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: Gambia Repatriates nearly 300 Migrants, half still Stranded in Libya){kind=link}
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