Nigerian refugees stage protest at Tunisia-Libya border camp

Refugees from Libya reached for food at the Tunisian border Tuesday

Ras Ajdir, Tunisia - Nigerian migrant workers fleeing unrest in Libya staged a protest Saturday claiming a lack of support from their government in their bid to return home.

Some of those who spoke out arrived at Tunisia's border with Libya twelve days ago. They initially slept rough and are now housed in a temporary tent camp several kilometres from the crossing.

'We want to go home,' said Charles Chuku, one of those who led the protest. 'We have watched almost all of the Egyptians leave, but we are still here waiting.'

Since Thursday there has been a significant drop in the number of migrant workers reaching the border. Numbers peaked at 20,000 per day on Tuesday and Wednesday, but had dropped to about 1,000 on Saturday, said a UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) official.

There are an estimated 200 Nigerians at the border camp. According to the Tunisian Army, which is managing the camp along with UNHCR, none of them have received consular assistance from their government, or information about when and how they might be able to go home.

The agency said about 10,000 Bangladeshi and 4,000 Egyptian migrant workers also remain in the tent camp awaiting evacuation.

The Bangladeshi government is working with the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) to bring them home.

About 1,000 Ghanaians are also benefiting from assistance from the IOM, with chartered flights from Djerba to Accra, Ghana, expected to begin Saturday evening.

Steelworker Peter Ofolu, from Ghana, said he and 30 other men arrived in Ras Ajdir on Saturday morning, having spent 150 Libyan dinars, the equivalent to one month's salary, on transport.

'Our families are waiting for us in Accra but we have nothing to take back to them,' he said.

'Libyan security forces stopped us before we reached the border and took our mobile phones, our radios and our money. They even took the flatscreen television that we had saved up to buy.'

The evacuation effort is likely to continue for several days.