Rejected and beaten by border guards, they were forced to drink their own urine to survive. And in the worst case, there are deaths from starvation in the middle of the desert. This is the terrible picture that emerged from the statements of immigrants who came to Tunisia from sub-Saharan Africa, in a research conducted by the British newspaper The Guardian. Statements confirming the suspicions of humanitarian organizations about the memorandum of understanding signed by the European Union and Tunisia to stop migrants’ routes to Italy.
The country, led by the authoritarian government of Kais Saied, has been accused of violence against people who arrived in Tunisia and were forcibly sent back to Libya and Algeria. Last July alone, more than 4,000 migrants were stranded in military buffer zones between Tunisia and two other North African countries, according to a source spoken to by the Guardian. The photos that sparked international outrage date back to that month and showed the dead bodies of seven migrants, including two children, dying of thirst in the desert between Libya and Tunisia. An NGO working in the area estimates that there have been between 50 and 70 victims this summer.
Since coming to power, Saied has maintained an increasingly hostile rhetoric towards immigrants from the rest of Africa. “There is a criminal plot to change the demographic structure of the country and undermine Tunisia’s Islamic roots,” he said in a public statement last February, referring to the fact that the majority of sub-Saharan immigrants are Christians. According to estimates, there are between 30 and 50 thousand immigrants in Tunisia; There are more or less immigrants, including Tunisians, who left the country to reach Italy illegally in 2022.
Saied’s racist remarks actually meant tightening land border controls and imposing mandatory returns. “They arrested me in Tunisia and took me near Kasserine, a border town near Algeria,” 22-year-old Senegalese Djibril Tabeté told the Guardian. “They dropped us a few kilometers from the border. Then we were ordered to climb a hill. On the other side was Algeria. The problem is that when the Algerian guards find you, they push you into Tunisia. Tunisians push you, Algerians do the same. People are dying there”, the youth accuses man. “Tunisian border guards beat us and stole our money and mobile phones. We had no water in the desert. I had to drink my own urine to survive,” said Michael, a 38-year-old Nigerian.
The rejections also concern women and children: “At the beginning of July, Tunisian police caught us in Sfax. Salma, a 28-year-old Nigerian woman, told the British newspaper: My two-year-old son and I were taken and pushed back into the desert on the Libyan border by some police officers. My husband is on the other side of the border.” “He was captured by his guards and I don’t know what happened to him. I haven’t heard from him since because I lost my phone while they were pushing us back.”
European officials are well aware of these accusations; because many members of the European Parliament openly demanded that the EU Commission block the memorandum and contact Tunisia for greater assurances of respect for human rights. But Brussels went ahead and announced last week that it had allocated a first tranche of aid to Tunisia, some of which was part of the memorandum of understanding. The bulk of the funds should be used to prevent departures towards Europe, but there are also resources to support and accept the repatriation of sub-Saharan migrants from Tunisia to their country of origin.
According to critics, these funds will only result in the consolidation of Saied’s authoritarian power, without any improvement in the conditions of immigrants in the country. The actual ability of Tunisian authorities to stop departures to Italy is also questioned.
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Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
