Tarpaulins for shelter, emaciated chickens for food, thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa eke out a living in olive fields in Tunisia, clinging to the hope of crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.
There are around 20,000 in makeshift camps near the rural towns of El Amra and Jebeniana, between 30 and 40 km north of the metropolis of Sfax (center), according to humanitarian sources.
They built their first shelters in mid-September after being evacuated from the center of Sfax. Thousands of others have since joined them in olive plantations, where they are waiting for the opportunity to embark clandestinely towards Italy, from beaches located around fifteen kms away.
This is the case of Ibrahim (not his real name), who left Guinea Conakry more than a year ago to emigrate to Europe and “provide for the needs of his sick mother and his little brother”. He arrived under the olive trees three months ago in the middle of winter, after walking 20 days from the Algerian border.
“It’s really difficult here, even for shopping, we go there in secret. We can go out to look for work but when they have to pay you, they call the police,” explains to AFP, looking exhausted, this student who says he is 17 years old.
For about a year and a speech with xenophobic overtones by Tunisian President Kais Saied against illegal immigration from sub-Saharan Africa, thousands of informally employed migrants have lost their jobs and housing.
In 2023, tens of thousands took to the sea, risking their lives, from the Sfax region, the epicenter of departures to Tunisia. “We are a few kilometers from Europe,” explains Ibrahim, referring to the 150 km that separate him from the Italian coast.
“Solidarity”
Near El Amra, under tarpaulins tied to posts with irrigation tubes, they often sleep in groups of 5 or 10. Mostly men but also women and children, coming from Guinea, Cameroon, Senegal, Sudan, Sierra Leone or Nigeria, grouped by language.
Women are cooking a kind of stew, a man shows meager white chickens, unfit for consumption but the main food of the migrants.
This winter, “it was very cold but we managed to survive thanks to the solidarity between African brothers,” notes Ibrahim. “If someone has food and you don’t, they give it to you, the tarpaulins we bought with our money (sent by certain families, editor’s note) or begging.”
Migrants remember a food distribution at the beginning of April by NGOs. Many are calling for more help from Europe.
But according to Romdhane Ben Amor of the NGO FTDES, Tunisia “is transforming itself into a de facto detention center precisely because of border control agreements with the European Union.”
On the health front, Ibrahim is worried: “there are a lot of births, sick people”. “We have one birth (of a migrant baby) per day at the Jebeniana hospital, many pregnant women, no follow-up,” confirms a humanitarian Source in Sfax.
“I am here to cross (the sea, editor’s note) with my 4-month-old daughter, there is no water, no diapers, we put plastic under her buttocks”, explains Salima, 17 years old, determined despite everything to ” wait while they (the smugglers, editor’s note) open the departures, delayed by bad weather.
“Swimming”
In recent weeks, the police have destroyed shelters in several camps, officially following reports from angry local residents.
Near Jebeniana, AFP journalists saw tear gas canisters and torn tarpaulins but also huts in the reconstruction phase.
“The police are tiring us a lot, yesterday I was chased away from the shops (in El Amra),” says Sokoto (a nickname), 22 years old, who left Guinea three years ago, entered Tunisia in January by Algerian border.
Mohamed Bekri is one of the inhabitants of El Amra who brings some water and food to the migrants. “It’s a humanitarian approach, there are babies of three or six months,” said this fifty-year-old trader.
“Removing the tents is not the solution, the State must find a real solution. It was already not a solution to bring them to El Amra where 32,000 people live,” he adds.
Despite the tensions and the great precariousness, none of the migrants met wants to return to the country.
For Sokoto, “the reverse gear broke.” “I went out to help my family, I suffered a lot to get here, I am not going back to Guinea even if I have to swim across.”
