TUNISIAN authorities carried out a mass eviction on Monday of hundreds of undocumented sub-Saharan African immigrants from the improvised camps they occupied in the south of the country.

The evictions from the camps in the city of Sfax continues what observers have called a campaign of repression by Tunisian authorities against the migrants. 

Authorities dispersed the migrants into small groups and forced them to seek shelter in small rural towns, according to statements by local activists.

Tunisia has been the scene of a rising number of racist attacks on migrants since last February when President Kais Saied accused undocumented immigrants of causing a wave of crime and of wanting to change the Arab ethnic identity of Tunisia.

After fleeing war, drought and famine the migrants have largely been using Tunisia as a stop-off point before attempting the risky crossing of the Mediterranean to Europe.

In response, the European Union has ramped up its financial support to Tunisia in a bid to reduce the flow of people attempting to reach their shores.

Tunisia has faced condemnation by human rights groups after more than 1,000 black Africans were reportedly rounded up by security forces in July and dumped on the Libyan border, where dozens were reported to have died.