More than 170 people who migrated from Benin to Tunisia have returned home on a voluntary charter flight, the UN’s migration agency said on Wednesday.

Migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have faced a hostile reception in Tunisia, a major transit point for those hoping to make the dangerous sea crossing to Europe.

After President Kais Saied said last year that “hordes of illegal migrants” posed a demographic threat to Tunisia, anti-migrant violence broke out and hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans were kicked out of their jobs and homes.

Saied has vowed his country will not become “a country of transit or settlement” for migrants from other African countries.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said it had worked with Benin’s government and “welcomed 173 Beninese migrants who had returned voluntarily from Tunisia by charter flight” on Tuesday.

“With our partners, we will ensure the sustainable reintegration of the returning migrants into their communities,” IOM Benin posted on social media after the flight landed in the country’s economic capital Cotonou.

According to the IOM, more than 27,000 migrants have died in the Mediterranean over the past decade, including more than 3,000 in the past year.

Earlier this month Tunisian authorities reported a 22.5 percent increase in the number of migrant interceptions, with more than 21,000 people prevented from leaving Tunisia or rescued during the first four months of 2024.

According to the National Guard, 21,545 people were intercepted between January 1 and April 30, compared with 17,576 over the same period last year.

The increase in interceptions comes after agreements between Tunisia and the European Union and Italy, who provide financial aid and economic cooperation deals in return for the debt-ridden country’s commitment to curb departures.