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Migrants sailing on a boat spotted by the Tunisian Coast Guard while trying to cross to Italy off the coast of Sfax (file photo)
Article informationAuthor, Bassam BounniRole, BBC North Africa Correspondent
2 hours ago
As soon as I set foot in Sfax, I felt that something had broken in the city. The images, which spread like wildfire on social networks, show scenes that neither the city nor the country has known.
In the aftermath of the killing of a Tunisian citizen, last Monday, by an immigrant from sub-Saharan Africa, dozens set out to attack homes, rob the residents of their money, and force them out into the street, raising a demand for their immediate deportation.
Louise Fallon, an immigrant from Ivory Coast, says that the assailants dragged her from her home completely naked, before her Tunisian neighbor intervened to cover her. “We need protection. We lived a real nightmare,” she told me while carrying her baby on her back.
A medical source said that at least twenty-five people were injured that night.
unknown fate
With a severe heat wave sweeping across the country, Louise and hundreds of other migrants are sleeping on the ground, in a garden in the middle of Sfax, after being stranded.
Myriam, an immigrant from Sierra Leone, says she has lost hope of reaching the Italian coasts from Tunisia, and adds, “I want to go back to my country.”
Myriam and dozens of others from Sierra Leone arrived in Tunisia, months ago, after a tiring journey that took her to Guinea, Mali, and then Algeria.
“A lot of people died on this trip,” she recalls.
Dozens of migrants left Sfax on trains and even on foot, while others were pushed to dangerous areas on the Tunisian borders with Algeria and Libya.
Human Rights Watch called on the Tunisian authorities to “stop mass expulsions and allow urgent humanitarian aid to reach the migrants.”
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Migrants gather at the train station after a Tunisian citizen was killed during clashes with migrants in Sfax
An “immigrant-repelling environment”
Tunisian President Kais Saied said on Saturday that immigrants receive “humane treatment stemming from our values and our ideals,” accusing “colonial circles and their agents” of promoting the opposite.
However, local organizations, including the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, have accused the Tunisian authorities of “creating an environment that expels migrants.”
“The official discourse denies the reality of what happened in Sfax,” said the forum’s spokesman, Ramadan Ben Omar, to the BBC, stressing the need for “Saeed to express frank human solidarity” to reduce tension.
Ben Omar warned against resorting to old legislation, some of which date back to the royal era before 1957, to criminalize several forms of relief.
The Tunisian opposition accused Said of “racism,” when he said, last February, that there was a “criminal plan to change the Tunisian demographic,” referring to immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa.
The Tunisian president repeats that there is also a plan to settle immigrants in his country, and he is the one who says that “Tunisia will not be a guardian of the borders of the European Union.”
Limited relief efforts
The immigrants gathered in the center of Sfax began to make their living from food and drink and what volunteers in the city offered them.
According to Yassin Amami, an eyeglasses seller who used to provide migrants with daily meals: “What happened in the city is shameful, by all accounts.”
Amami wonders about the reason for the delay and limitations of relief efforts, given the scale of the disaster: “Many Tunisians have known the same fate in several European countries, but dealing with them was more humane.”
The spokesperson for the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, Ramadan Ben Amor, indicated that there are fears among many Sfax residents about the reaction of anti-immigrant groups, if they provide them with any form of assistance.
In confirmation of Ben Omar’s words, I met by chance a taxi driver, near the Children’s and Women’s Park, in the city center, who told me that he was sheltering a number of immigrants in his house.
After making an agreement with him about filming, he called me apologizing, saying, “I’m afraid that I will catch up after broadcasting the meeting.”
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Migrants wait in the port of Sfax after being stopped at sea by the Tunisian coast guard while trying to cross into Italy
“expected wave”
And while the state of brokenness was evident in the features of many of the city’s residents, activists were expecting to reach the point of no return.
In the historic Bab al-Bahr area, in Sfax, I met the activist, Maryam al-Baribri, in her shop selling Amazigh clothes, and she says: “I was reading, daily, posts and recordings on social networks calling for violence and inciting hatred,” adding: “I was expecting an explosion.” “.
Al-Baribri mentioned that the wave of violence that took place in Sfax following Said’s statements, last February, was not taken seriously, and she said: “In that wave, we recorded attacks and attacks targeting immigrants and black Tunisians, but impunity prevailed.”
Ziad Mellouli, who is one of the administrators of a page followed by more than 190,000 people, denied the accusation of incitement against immigrants.
In his office, on Al-Ain Road, northeast of Sfax, where he used to go to his followers on a daily basis, Mellouli says that he “was rejecting all forms of charging against immigrants.”
He added that he was “rejecting the mere idea of talking about settlements,” but pictures on his personal account show participants in a march in Sfax, which he called for weeks ago, while they were holding up a banner that read, “No settlements, no settlements in Tunisia.”
“humane solution”
The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights accused the United Nations agencies dealing with refugee and migration issues of failing to carry out their duties.
The forum’s spokesperson, Ramadan Benomar, stated that these agencies should “provide the necessary protection for migrants,” warning that those who were pushed to the Tunisian borders with Libya and Algeria will inevitably return, in a forced manner, given the lack of any appropriate conditions that allow them to stay there.
Ben Omar called on the Tunisian President, Kais Saied, to boycott a European-African conference on migration, which is scheduled to be organized by Italy, on July 23.
Relations between Tunisia and Rome witnessed an unprecedented warmth, and the government of Georgia Meloni even went as far as propaganda for the Tunisian side to enable it to obtain a vital loan of $ 1.9 billion from the International Monetary Fund.
Activists have launched campaigns to collect donations, with expectations that the plight of migrants will continue, in light of the Tunisian government’s lack of any vision to reach a solution that preserves their dignity.
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2023-07-11 02:57:17
