For four days, violent clashes have affected Sfax, the country’s second city.
Attacks, expulsions and threats: since the beginning of Monday, July 3, clashes have followed one another in Sfax. The second city of the country, after Tunis, is one of its economic lungs. A port city, too. Hence the presence of many migrants, particularly from Sudan and West Africa. Candidates for departure to Europe, they are waiting to find a place in the boats which will take them, they hope, to Italy. Except that the cohabitation with the inhabitants has become explosive. A month ago, a migrant from Benin was killed. And earlier this week, in these clashes, it was a 41-year-old Tunisian who died of stab wounds. Three suspects were arrested, they are three Cameroonians, according to justice.
The positions of President Kais Saied
Since this murder, violence against migrants has redoubled. With punitive expeditions. All day Wednesday, July 5, worried about their safety, the candidates for exile tried to flee Sfax, by train or by collective taxi. Other exiles were taken away by the authorities, for an unknown destination. Probably towards the border with Libya, according to several NGOs.
This violence can also be explained by the national context. In recent months, the Tunisian authorities have raised their voices. President Kaïs Saïed believes that his country is invaded by “hordes of illegal immigrants”. He also brandishes the threat of identity. Last spring, he warned of a shift in Tunisia’s “demographic composition” because of migrants; which would threaten, according to him, the Arab and Muslim identity of the country. A populist rhetoric, which recalls arguments that we hear within the European far right. But these words also resonate with the anger of part of the population in Sfax. She denounces the “insecurity” and the “unfair competition” exerted by migrant workers, which weigh down on wages.
The migration file also taints relations between Tunisia and Europe
In recent weeks, Kaïs Saïed received a visit from the European Commission, then that of Gérald Darmanin and the German Minister of the Interior. All ask him to fight more against smugglers and against the departure of boats to the European coasts. In exchange for public funds. But the Tunisian leader repeats it: his country has no vocation to become Europe’s border guard. If we zoom out, we see here the insoluble aspect of this subject: France offers money to Tunisia, to better control the departures of boats from its coasts. At the same time, the United Kingdom offers money to France, to better control the departures of boats from its coasts. Like an endless loop, then. Where each country tries to subcontract to its southern neighbor the responsibility for a phenomenon that no one manages to stem.