On the east coast of Tunisia, the city of Sfax is a strategic crossing point for sub-Saharan migrants seeking to reach the Italian coast. Tunisia’s second city is plagued by tensions over the reception given to these men who have nothing left.
In recent days, the island of Lampedusa, Italy, has been facing a record number of migrant arrivals. HAS 150 kilometers away, the Tunisian coast has become the main departure point for exiles seeking to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean. Faced with this situation, European officials are asking Tunisia to better control departures. But on the spot, tensions are high and the authorities seem overwhelmed.
Migrants chased out of the city of Sfax
On the east coast of the country is Sfax, Tunisia’s second city, which has become the obligatory crossing point for African candidates for illegal immigration. It is from here that the boat journey is the shortest to reach Lampedusa. Until a week ago, hundreds of sub-Saharan migrants were sleeping outside, right in the center, in public squares or roundabouts.
But on Sunday September 17, using armored vehicles, the authorities chased away at least 500 migrants and put them on buses, giving the inhabitants of Sfax the illusion that the crisis was resolved.
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In reality, the buses did not go very far: about thirty kilometers north of the city, near several large villages. There, the migrants were left in the middle of olive fields, where several thousand other sub-Saharans had already been present for weeks.
“The goal is to go to Europe, to any country”
On site, the image is striking when driving near the village of El Amra. Many men walk along the road. Like Ayo, a 32-year-old Ivorian, who agreed to confide: “I have been here for almost eight months now, one month here (in this village)“. “The objective is to go to Europe, to any country, to reach the other side. Italy first, then we will see,” adds Ayo. Before he can cross, he does odd jobs to raise the money to cross. He needs to enter “2,500 to 3,000 dinars”so between 750 and 900 euros, at the moment, to be able to get on these boats.
“It’s also pushing these migrants away from the eyes of civil society or the media to carry out expulsions.”
Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesperson for a local NGOat franceinfo
Boats which are even closer than from the city of Sfax. With this evacuation operation, the authorities have therefore brought hundreds of men ready to leave closer to the coast, denounces Romdhane Ben Amor, the spokesperson for one of the few local NGOs agreeing to speak, the Tunisian Forum economic and social rights: “It is an indirect way of pushing back migrants to take boats, for the benefit of smuggler networks, which are very active in these localities. It is also pushing these migrants away from the eyes of civil society or the media to make expulsions towards the Algerian or Libyan borders.”
This summer, several dozen migrants were found abandoned in the desert, some died. Others, in Sfax, were violently attacked by Tunisians.
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“Two miseries that meet”
These attacks on sub-Saharan migrants by Tunisians in Sfax have not calmed tensions, but have moved them to villages without infrastructure to accommodate so many foreigners. Men from Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia and even Senegal sleep outside. On the main street of El Amra, one in two people is a black African. “In the village of El Amra, we are very poor and we are tired, exhausted. The presence of so many migrants is overwhelming!” confides a Tunisian grandmother. She is interrupted by another resident of the village who does not admit that this woman freely criticizes Tunisia, then adds: “We are a weak country, I am not telling a lie. The black people who came, we cannot take care of them. No political leader came here to understand the situation.”
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Tensions in Sfax are “two miseries that meetanalyzes Franck Yotedje, president of the association helping exiles Afrique intelligence. The misery of migrants who are desperately trying to reach Europe and the misery of a population. Because we have to understand the Tunisian context, the economic context where we even struggle to find basic necessities. So a population that feels overwhelmed, invaded and left abandoned to its own devices.”
Tunisia is in fact going through a deep crisis with a turn of the screw by President Kaïs Saïed, at the head of a security state which prevents the media, even Tunisian ones, from working. We had to play cat and mouse with the police to produce this report: Tunisia does not currently authorize journalists to cover these migration issues.