Scruffy people treated badly by African country in large number (15)
I believe the answer is:
tatterdemalions
'scruffy people' is the definition.
'tatterdemalions' can be an answer for 'people' (tatterdemalion is a kind of person). I am not sure about the 'scruffy' bit.
'treated badly by african country in large number' is the wordplay.
'badly' indicates an anagram (letters in the wrong order).
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'african country' becomes 'mali' (country in Africa).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'large number' becomes 'tons' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'treated' is an anagram of 'atterde'.
'atterde'+'mali'='atterdemali'
'atterdemali' inserted inside 'tons' is 'TATTERDEMALIONS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tatterdemalions that I've seen before include "Scruffy kids" , "Tramps" .)