(Bloomberg) -- United Nations-appointed experts called on Tunisian authorities to stop collective deportations of sub-Saharan Africans, days after the North African nation struck a deal to curb migration to Europe.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination raised concern about the discriminatory treatment of Black migrants, urging Tunisian authorities to protect their human rights, according to a statement Tuesday. The experts first flagged the issue in March, it said.

“Collective expulsions are prohibited under international law,” the UN-appointed experts said. “Deporting migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers without conducting an individual and objective risk assessment of their exposure to human rights violations upon return amounts to refoulement, prohibited under international human rights law.”

Tunisia’s foreign ministry and presidential spokesman didn’t immediately respond to written requests for comment.

Some Black Africans in Tunisia have been evicted from their homes after President Kais Saied blamed them for a rise in violent crime and for threatening the country’s Arab identity. Tunisian authorities have abandoned hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers in the desert near the border with Libya this month alone, according to Human Rights Watch. 

Ivory Coast, Mali and Guinea are among nations that started evacuating citizens in late-February as Black Africans, regardless of their immigration statuses, found themselves targeted by a rise in racial violence and hostility.

Saied has dismissed accusations of racism, saying that he only seeks to ensure laws on migration are enforced and to protect the economically-vulnerable nation from what he called human-trafficking gangs. After the African Union condemned his Feb. 21 comments saying migrants were changing Tunisia’s demographic landscape, he responded saying he has “African” friends.

The renewed condemnation comes days after the European Union signed an agreement with Tunisia to curb a rise in irregular migration to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea. The EU is boosting financial support to Tunisia for related issues to more than 100 million euros ($112 million) this year, almost three times the average provided to the nation over the past two years. 

“Coming against a backdrop of escalating violence and abuses against sub-Saharan African migrants by Tunisian authorities, the decision shows no lessons have been learned from previous similar agreements,” Amnesty International said in a statement Monday. “This makes the European Union complicit in the suffering that will inevitably result.” 

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