TUNIS, Tunisia — Tunisia and Libya took again 276 sub-Saharan migrants stranded in a desert area alongside the border between the 2 international locations and introduced them to shelters on Thursday.

Tunisia has been blamed for dumping the migrants within the scorching warmth within the no man’s land close to the border publish of Ras Jedir. Libya stated Wednesday that 27 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have been discovered lifeless by Libyan authorities within the western desert close to the Tunisian border.

Tunisia’s coast - and particularly the japanese port metropolis of Sfax - has lately taken over from Libya as the primary jumping-off level for African migrants setting off in fragile boats for Europe throughout the Mediterranean Sea.

“We took charge of a group that was sheltered by the Tunisian Red Crescent and the Libyan side did the same so that the migrants were evacuated from the zone,” Tunisian Interior Ministry spokesman Faker Bouzghaya informed The Associated Press.

“A consensual solution was … reached to end the problem of the presence of illegal immigrants in the border area between the two countries,” a Libyan assertion stated.

Tunisia took 126 of the migrants, together with 45 girls and eight youngsters, and transferred them to 2 cities within the southeast, an operation coordinated by the Tunisian Red Crescent and the Organization for Migration, the Interior Ministry stated.

On the Libyan aspect, Ahmed Hamza, chairman of the National Human Rights Committee in Libya, a neighborhood rights group, stated 150 migrants have been transferred by Libyan boarder guards to shelters within the capital, Tripoli.

Both international locations confirmed the border space had been cleared by late Thursday.

Details of the accord weren't made public, past the element on bringing the migrants to shelters and stepping up patrols to make sure the desert space stays migrant-free.

The growth follows an settlement Wednesday throughout a gathering in Tunis of Tunisian and Libyan inside ministers, accompanied by massive delegations. A variety of safety points was on the desk, together with how the 2 North African international locations can stem the tide of migrants fleeing battle and poverty.

Tunisian Interior Minister Kamel Fekih lately informed the AP that authorities had retrieved 901 our bodies of migrants from the ocean from January to July 20.

Human traffickers have profited from instability in Libya for the reason that 2011 toppling of autocrat Moammar Gadhafi, exploiting migrants fleeing battle and poverty to make the damaging sea crossings to Europe.

Tunisia has since been broadly denounced by human rights teams for dumping some migrants within the desert border space with Libya and in addition with neighboring Algeria to the north.

Fekih, denied any collective expulsion of migrants whereas conceding that some small teams had been pushed again into the desert.

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Jeffery reported from Cairo. Associated Press author Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed to this report.

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