‘TUNISIA BECOMING A DETENTION CENTRE’
20,000 migrants keeping their hopes alive of reaching Europe
THOUSANDS of sub-Saharan migrants have huddled in Tunisian olive groves for months, living in makeshift tents and on meagre rations while keeping their hopes alive of reaching Europe.
Around 20,000 are in isolated areas near the towns of El Amra and Jebeniana, some 30km and 40km north of the port city of Sfax, humanitarian sources say.
Sfax is one of Tunisia’s main departure points for irregular migration to Europe by boat, and was once a hub for sub-Saharan migrants.
After being forcibly removed from the city last autumn, migrants set up camp in neighbouring towns as they awaited their chance to make the crossing.
One 17-year-old calling himself Ibrahim said he left Guinea more than a year ago, hoping to reach the other side of the Mediterranean “to provide for his sick mother and little brother” back home.
He said that after walking for three weeks from the border with Algeria, he arrived in El Amra in midwinter three months ago.
“It’s really difficult here,” he said, adding that he and other migrants feel trapped on the sidelines of society.
“Even shopping, we have to do in secret. You can go out looking for work, but when it’s time for your employer to pay you, they would call the police.”
After President Kais Saied said last year that “hordes of illegal migrants” posed a demographic threat to Tunisia, anti-migrant violence broke out and hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans were kicked out of their jobs and homes.
Tens of thousands embarked from Sfax last year because of its proximity to Italy, the closest European country.
Near El Amra, in tents made of tarpaulins and rods, groups of five — and at times even 10 — share the same sleeping space.
Men, women and children, mostly from Cameroon, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Sudan, congregate by language.
Some 7,000 migrants received their first food aid in months from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) earlier this month. However, they said this was not enough and called for more help from Europe, which has ramped up measures to curb
irregular migration.
According to Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesman of the Tunisian NGO FTDES, the North African country “is turning into a de facto detention centre because of border control agreements signed with the European Union”.
Tunisian authorities raided several encampments recently, tearing down tents and kicking out some migrants after locals allegedly reported thefts.
Despite the tensions and the dire situation the migrants find themselves in, none of those interviewed said they wanted to return to their countries of origin.
“I left to help my family and I suffered a lot to get here,” said 22year-old Sokoto, who was also using a pseudonym.
“I’m not going back to Guinea even if I have to swim across the sea to Europe.”