what we know about the situation in Sfax, where sub-Saharan migrants are victims of violence and waves of arrests

Blocked roads, burnt tires… In Sfax, violence broke out again on the night of Tuesday 4 to Wednesday 5 July. In several districts of this city on the east coast of Tunisia, hundreds of people gathered to demand the immediate departure of illegal immigrants.

The fire of the revolt ignited on Monday, after the death of a resident, stabbed during clashes with migrants from Cameroon, according to the Tunisian authorities. Three migrants suspected of being involved in this murder have been arrested, the Sfax prosecutor’s office announced on Monday. Since then, the new arrivals have been the target of residents and law enforcement. Franceinfo returns to the tense climate that reigns in this large port city on the shores of the Mediterranean.

Streets “turned into a battlefield”

Clashes with stone throwing pitted sub-Saharan migrants against residents of Sfax on Sunday. Vehicles and homes were damaged. The police have since multiplied the arrests of illegal immigrants. On a video filmed on Monday and verified by Les Observateurs de France 24, a crowd of jubilant residents applauded police officers arresting migrants at their homes. “Long live Tunisia! Sfax is not a colony. Get out, get out! Go home!”exclaims the one holding the camera.

“The streets are transformed into a battlefield, seriously injured Tunisians as well as sub-Saharan migrants, fires, attacks, robberies and powerless police forces!”deplored Monday on Facebook Franck Yotedje, director of the association Afrique intelligence, which works to defend the rights of migrants.

Lazhar Neji, emergency doctor in a hospital in Sfax, lamented “an inhuman night” And “bloody” Tuesday, on the page of the Facebook group entitled “Sayeb Trottoir”, dedicated to the issue of illegal immigration. According to him, the hospital received between 30 and 40 migrants, including women and children. “Some were thrown from terraces, others attacked with swords”he said.

“Many are on their own, they have been driven out of their homes and find themselves living on the streets, without any help from associations”reported Thursday Lilia Blaise, correspondent in Tunisia for France 24. Some confide “not having to eat and live in a park, or even in the streets of Sfax”.

Migrants forcibly returned to the Libyan border

In a joint statement, the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), which monitors migration issues, and more than twenty other Tunisian and international NGOs said that the security forces on Tuesday took away a “group of 100 migrants and refugees” from the Sfax region towards the Libyan border. “The group includes several nationalities, including Ivorian, Cameroonian and Guinean, including at least twelve children aged between 6 months and 5 years”they point out.

Some migrants have been “beaten and mistreated”added the NGOs, calling on the Tunisian authorities to “provide clarifications on these facts and (to) intervene urgently to ensure care for these people”. According to the testimonies collected by The world, migrants were deposited on a beach in the middle of the desert, in the border area between Libya and Tunisia. Men, but also women and children were still gathered on this sandbar on Wednesday, according to a video received by the daily.

A climate hostile to migrants for several months

The anger of the inhabitants of Sfax vis-à-vis the migrants has been rumbling for months already. Romdhane Ben Amor, communications manager for the FTDES, told AFP that the current tension in the port city was “expected”. “This outburst of violence is due to several months of waiting. The people of Sfax are waiting for the State to intervene”analyzes Mohamed Farhat, senior reporter in Tunisia for France 24. The city matters “thousands of sub-Saharan illegal migrants, because it is an immigration hub”, continues the journalist. Most of the candidates for exile come there to then try to reach Europe by sea, landing on the Italian coast.

Tensions between locals and migrants escalated after a speech in February by Tunisian President Kais Saied. Openly hostile to immigration, he had described it as a demographic threat to his country. On Tuesday, the Tunisian leader affirmed that his country “does not accept on its territory anyone who does not respect its laws, nor to be a country of transit [vers l’Europe] or resettlement land for nationals of certain African countries”.

To escape violence and arrests, “Hundreds of sub-Saharans are queuing to take the train. There is an escape from the city of Sfax after these nights of chaos”relates the journalist Mohamed Farhat.