Operation of the Tunisian National Guard Group against migrants near the city of Sfax. Photo: Anadolu Agency
Felix watches in desperation as hundreds of sub-Saharan migrants are strewn across makeshift cardboard mattresses and dirty blankets on the streets of Sfax, a Tunisian coastal town just 75 miles from Italy.
« Babies, children and pregnant women sleep on the ground,” said a 36-year-old Nigerian man. “This is dehumanization. For us, this is torture.”
Samuel, a 27-year-old migrant who has been on the move for eight years, added: “I lost so many of my friends and brothers in the civil war in South Sudan. I went to Sudan and then Libya before coming here … And yet I have nowhere to lay my head.”
Hundreds of migrants of all ages from sub-Saharan Africa sleep for almost two months in parks and lanes of Sfax. Many were forced to leave their homes during the racist pogroms that swept through the city in early summer.
The brutal crackdown has exacerbated plans for migrants to travel to Italy and the EU despite millions of euros Brussels and Rome have spent trying to control the flow of people across the Mediterranean.
Louis, a 40-year-old migrant from Cameroon, bluntly said: “For us it's Europe or death. We have no more fear.”
Those who make it to Tunisia live like second-class citizens, unable to rent a house, find a secure job, or use public transport without harassment.
“Racism is very strong,” said Felix, who, like many others, traveled to Sfax, a center for human smuggling, to take a boat to Italy. “We have neither housing nor work. We don't even have anywhere to swim… I see myself as a slave in this country.”
More than 60,000 illegal migrants arrived in Italy from Tunisia this year, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa. Of these, more than half have made the trip since early June, when mass clashes with black migrants broke out.
Tensions between migrants and locals have long been brewing, fearing that the city is being taken over by desperate people. to get to Europe.
This year, more than 60,000 illegal migrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa, arrived in Italy from Tunisia. Credit: Anadolu Agency
In February, President Kaid Said described the estimated 20,000 to 50,000 sub-Saharan Tunisians, who make up just 0.4% of the population, as a «demographic threat.»
There were waves of mob violence and violent action. evictions of residents in sub-Saharan Africa after a local resident was killed in a clash with several Cameroonian migrants in early June.
Moussa, a 25-year-old migrant from Guinea, described the raids that left him on the streets without a penny in your pocket. “A group of guys broke into my house, beat me up and took everything I had, even my clothes. I have been sleeping here ever since,” he said in a park in the city center.
The Tunisian authorities have been active participants in abuses against migrants. During the riots, they arbitrarily arrested and deported about 1,200 migrants to the desert areas on the border with Libya and Algeria, leaving them to suffer without food and water in the sweltering heat.
«Three times they threw me into the desert» me into the desert, beating me up and taking everything I had,” said Mel, a South Sudanese migrant who fled his country because of the civil war. «They told me not to come back.»
After weeks of pressure from human rights groups, activists and the United Nations, Tunisia said on August 10 that it had returned the last group of migrants it had abandoned in the deserts, but not before dozens had died there.
“I I never in my life thought I would see such events in my country,” Selim Harrat, president of Al Bawsala, a Tunisian human rights organization and observer, told The Telegraph. «It's inhuman.»
The European Union tried unsuccessfully to suppress activity along the thriving Mediterranean migration route.
Migrants who want to reach Europe illegally via the Mediterranean Sea near the city of Sfax in Tunisia. Photo: Anadolu Agency
On June 11, he announced that he would provide Tunisia with 100 million euros (£85.5 million) for border control, ignoring reports of violations committed by the Tunisian coast guard against migrants at sea.
Since then, migrants and activists have been talking about an increase in the departure of ships bound for Italy, but the total number of boats reaching Europe has hardly changed.
“It doesn’t matter if you double the number of policemen or double the number of control operations . There will still be migrants looking for a better life,” Harrat, from Al Bawsala, told The Telegraph. «nothing can stop» migrants like him from reaching Europe.
«We will try again and again,» he said. «We have no other choice.»
Cramped metal boat
In order to secure a place in a cramped metal boat, migrants have to pay between £376 and £877 to Tunisian smugglers, who supply boats and organize trips.
For many, the cost is their savings and they don't get reimbursed if something goes wrong.
Adrian said he lost all his money when the National Guards ripped out his boat's engine and left him and other passengers to drift into the sea.
Though he was lucky that a passing fisherman pulled him ashore, now he must find a way to raise more funds for his next attempt to cross the border. The EU has tried unsuccessfully to crack down on activity along the thriving Mediterranean migration route.
On June 11, it announced it would give Tunisia €100m (£85.5m) to manage the border.
Over the past weeks, at least 46 migrants drowned from Sfax to the Italian island of Lampedusa, with several bodies washed ashore on a crowded beach.
In Sfax, news of these drowned people has become commonplace. , to little surprise for migrants intent on fleeing Tunisia's «hellish» conditions for Europe.
«The risk is high…but I have no choice but to continue,» said Felix, who has already tried twice get to Italy by sea, but each time the Tunisian coast guard brought him back. “We have no future here.”
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