A video circulating on social media documented the moment an irregular African migrant cried in grief for his wife, who was lost in the desert on the border between Tunisia and Libya.

The video showed a brief conversation between a journalist and an African migrant where the journalist asked him: What happened to your wife? "I lost consciousness, there was no drinking water, I tried to get to the place where my wife got lost and contacted the police who tried to help me but we couldn't find her," he replied.

One of the Libyan officers said that "the young African man called for help before dawn and two patrols went out with him to search for his wife, and indeed the entire area on the Libyan border was combed and we did not find any trace of her."

"We gave him our microphone so that he would call his wife and talk to her in the hope that his wife would give us any signal or call and we would find out about it and rescue her, but to no avail, she could be on the Tunisian side," he added.

The young African, whose name is unknown, was accompanied by other migrants in Tunisia before Tunisian security pushed him to the Libyan border and had to leave his wife in the desert.

Earlier, activists circulated a photo of the body of an African migrant with her son who had died in the border area between Libya and Tunisia.

The body of the mother and daughter was reported to the border guards by the border guards is a refugee found by border patrols in the desert border region between #ليبيا and #تونس coming from Tunisia.
These are additional photos of the mother and daughter when they were found and their bodies were later transferred to Libyan territory after the Public Prosecution reported the bodies 👇 pic.twitter.com/VpzCUD15Zf

— Ahmed Khalifa 🇱🇾 (@ahmad_khalifa78) July 20, 2023

Migrants in Libya, which cooperates with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to help migrants in the country, published a photo showing the woman's body with her son, saying, "In Tunisia, a woman dies of thirst in the desert with her unfulfilled dream of a better life for her child and the child dies with a dream that was never born."

The migrant and her son died as a result of being left without water and food, in the open, with bad weather and high temperatures in remote desert areas, the organization said.

Lieutenant Colonel Chaouki Nasr, head of the media office of the border guard service of the Interior Ministry of Libya's Government of National Unity, said the bodies were found on the Tunisian-Libyan border after a report from an irregular migrant who was also in the area.

A few days ago, the Tunisian authorities began transferring dozens of African migrants who were stationed in the city of Sfax towards the border areas with Libya and Algeria, especially after violent clashes between migrants and Tunisians resulted in casualties on both sides.

International organizations have denounced the deterioration of the rights of African migrants, denouncing the violent arrests and forced expulsions they face, despite the fact that "some of them are registered with the UNHCR or have legal status in Tunisia."

It called on the Tunisian authorities to intervene urgently to put an end to arbitrary and unlawful refoulements, ensure the necessary and dignified care for these people, and allow humanitarian organizations to intervene to provide relief and medical care to them.