Tunis, April 21 (IANS): Nearly 3,000 Tunisians have joined the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, Tunisia's Deputy Minister of National Security, Rafik Chelli, said here on Monday.

"Several hundreds of Tunisians are currently in Libya in order to train or join terrorist groups in the east and west of the country," Chelli announced, according to a Xinhua report.

The Tunisian interior ministry "has prevented 12,000 Tunisians from joining the battlefield of Syria via Turkey" and "the 500 Tunisians who came back from Syria also represent a serious problem," he added.

The intervention of several ministries, including the ministry of social affairs, the ministry of religion affairs, and the ministry of health was necessary to address the problem, according to Chelli.

Some of the returning fighters were under the supervision of the security forces in Tunisia and "many Tunisians have been on trial for the committed crimes," added Chelli.

Radical Islamist factions have set up camps in Libya to train young Tunisians and Libyans and send them to fight in Syria and Iraq since 2013, triggering more problems for those war-torn areas.