Report: migrants “stranded” in Tunisia and trapped in a country that has nothing to offer them

Leslie Carretero, special correspondent in Tunisia.

Mohammed and Mariam have their feet in the water. The two young Africans have been busy for long minutes to limit the damage. A leak has just flooded their apartment. Broom in hand, Mohammed drains the water up the stairs. Mariam gives him a hand, her seven month old baby clinging to his back.

The Malian and Guinean in their twenties have been living “painfully” in Zarzis for almost two years. They share with two other people, including Mariam’s husband, a small three-room apartment in this coastal town in southern Tunisia of about 75,000 inhabitants. Each month, the payment of rent, which amounts to 250 dinars (75 euros), is a source of concern.

The price of the apartment is not exorbitant for the region, but job offers are increasingly rare in Tunisia, including for locals. The country has more than 742,000 unemployed people, for a rate of 17.8% of the active population. The percentage among young people reaches 40.8%, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

The economic crisis is therefore hitting migrants hard. Tourists have deserted the region due to the coronavirus pandemic and the construction industry is struggling to resume operations. Areas in which exiles used to work informally.

Aboubacar and Alassane, sitting on the sand, their eyes riveted on the sea, are Sierra Leoneans. They say “suffer here”. The meager income they manage to earn when they are temporarily hired on a construction site – around 30 dinars a day – barely allows them to pay their rent and a little food.

All the migrants met in the south of Tunisia repeat the same thing over and over again: “There is no work”.

Mariam, she does a few households with Tunisians but not enough to pay her expenses. Finding food for her son has become a challenge. “The grocer on the corner of the street sometimes gives me yogurt for my child, but it’s very difficult. Some days, we have nothing to eat,” says the Guinean.

“We didn’t think it would be so complicated”

The number of migrants in Zarzis is around 3,000, according to Mongi Slim, regional manager of the Tunisian Red Crescent. About 300 people are housed in centers run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the rest rent at several of the apartments in town.

The majority have arrived in the country “accidentally”, reports Mongi Slim. Leaving Libya aboard a makeshift boat destined for Europe, they drifted towards the Tunisian coast where they were rescued by the authorities.

None of them wanted to be there. Some did have the hope of settling in Tunisia for a while, but their precarious daily life changed their plan. Stranded in the country, the exiles encountered still cherish the same dream: to join a European country.

But reaching the European El Dorado is more complicated than they had imagined. The cost of crossing the Mediterranean is close to 2,000 euros from the Tunisian coast. Impossible to pay a smuggler with their scarce resources. As a result, they find themselves stranded in Tunisia, often for several years.

“Tunisia is hidden hell. We are dying slowly,” breathes Aminita *, a 33-year-old Ivorian who she met in Medenine, about sixty kilometers from Zarzis. “In Libya we knew what to expect but we didn’t think it would be so complicated here,” continues this mother of four, whose youngest child is the result of a rape committed in a Libyan prison.

Return to Libya

The lack of work and money even push some migrants to return to Libya, despite the risks they run. The country, rich in hydrocarbons, was for a long time one of the most prosperous states in the region.

Ahmed * sometimes thinks of it. “At least there you can work and try to go to sea,” said the 32-year-old Sudanese man. Moustapha * listens to his friend, and nods repeatedly. “We came to Tunisia because we thought it was a safe country but if I had known I would have stayed in Libya”, adds the young man, who arrived in the country two years earlier crossing the land border.

The two Sudanese, however, obtained refugee status from the UNHCR in Tunisia last year. But in the absence of an integration policy, refugees often find themselves in the same precariousness as undocumented migrants. Hosted for two years in a center of the UN agency located on the outskirts of Zarzis – the nearest shop is 20 minutes by bike – Ahmed and Moustapha complain about the lack of perspective. Without the financial assistance of about 200 dinars paid monthly by the UNHCR, they would not get by, they estimate.

Although a signatory to the Geneva Convention relating to refugees, Tunis does not have the national legal framework necessary for its application. Asylum and protection issues are therefore delegated to UNHCR. Since the start of the year, 2,951 people have been granted status in the country. The organization accommodates refugees in centers spread across the country or in the 75 apartments made available to them.

The UNHCR deputy representative in Tunisia, Laurent Raguin, concedes that the situation can be difficult for migrants and refugees in Tunisia, “but it is not easy for Tunisians either”. For the manager, the job exists, but many would refuse the offers. “A company had agreed to hire several hundred refugees, but it did not find takers,” he said.

Moustapha and Ahmed are not of this opinion. “Apart from financial aid and housing, the UNHCR does nothing for us and does not help us find a job,” retort the two friends. They say they want to work and train for a job, but “nothing is organized in this direction”. “Here you eat and you sleep, that’s all,” laments Ahmed, his gaze blank.

A feeling of hopelessness that pushes some to the worst. Abdallah tried in early October to end his life by throwing himself from the roof of the UNHCR center in Medenine. His friends held him back at the last minute. “Here, it’s as if I was already dead anyway,” says the 17-year-old Sudanese asylum seeker, whose rickety body testifies to the suffering endured on the road to exile.

* First names have been changed.