Monday April 14, 2025
El Amra, Tunisia
By Kaouther LARBI et Inรจs BEL AIBA
Single file, resolute step and truncheon in hand, Tunisian gendarmes take to a track winding between two rows of olive trees. Ahead of them, migrants flee while their tents burn.
Powerless, some watch the smoke billowing a few hundred meters away.
This week, the authorities launched a huge operation to destroy their makeshift dwellings. โI don’t know what to do,โ says Bakayo Abdelkadeur, a 26-year-old Malian with two worn blankets under his arm.
For almost two years, olive groves in the El Amra region of east-central Tunisia have been transformed into informal camps for thousands of people from sub-Saharan Africa.
This has become an explosive issue in the country against the backdrop of a virulent anti-migrant campaign, as cohabitation with local residents is difficult and landowners are demanding that the newcomers be driven from their fields.
Tensions rose in 2023, when Tunisian President Kais Saied warned that โhordes of sub-Saharan migrantsโ were threatening to โchange the demographic compositionโ of the country.
Arriving in Tunisia after crossing the deserts of Mali and Algeria, the migrants dreamed of reaching the Italian coast. But this was without taking into account the blocking of the sea route, which prevented them from reaching the European Eldorado.
In 2023, Tunisia signed a โpartnershipโ agreement with the European Union, providing for 255 million euros in financial aid, almost half of which to combat irregular immigration.
– “Confused” –
Benjamin Enna picks up a spoon and a packet of juice powder, the meagre remains of the so-called “kilometer 25” camp.
This 29-year-old Nigerian wanted to join his brother in Italy and says he survived a shipwreck in the Mediterranean. He says he would like to return to his country, then work in Tunisia, but will โtry againโ to go to Europe.
โIt’s confusing in my head,โ he admits.
While their plans differ – to return home or to try, despite the obstacles, to reach Europe – most of the migrants interviewed around El Amra agree on one thing: they want to leave Tunisia as soon as possible.
โWe’ve suffered a lot,โ says Camara Hassan, 25, who studied international relations in Guinea and claims to have spent two months in prison in Tunisia.
The road to Europe may seem closed, but he is not giving up hope. โOne way or another, we’ll go anyway,โ he asserts.
โI want to go back to Cรดte d’Ivoire, but the IOM (International Organization for Migration) is full,โ explains another young man, before fleeing as a National Guard vehicle approaches.
Visibly harassed, a 29-year-old Cameroonian woman, who prefers to remain anonymous, describes her torment.
โIt’s horrible,โ says the young woman. โThey treat us as if we weren’t human beingsโ.
– New camps? –
National Guard spokesman Houcem Eddine Jebabli insists that the dismantling was carried out in a “humane” manner, stressing that his men did not use tear gas.
Asked about the fate of the migrants now that their camps had been destroyed, the official said that a large proportion would benefit from โvoluntary returnsโ, while others had โdispersed into the wildโ.
As of April 2, the IOM said it had already carried out 1,740 voluntary returns, after almost 7,000 last year, three times as many as in 2023.
Romdhane Ben Amor, from the NGO Forum tunisien pour les droits รฉconomiques et sociaux (FTDES), is skeptical about this heavy-handed operation by the authorities, using dozens of police vans and tractors.
For him, it’s an attempt to โscatter as many migrants as possible in the wilderness to calm tensions among the local populationโ.
โI want to go back to Cรดte d’Ivoire, but the IOM (International Organization for Migration) is full,โ explains another young man, before fleeing as a National Guard vehicle approaches.
Visibly harassed, a 29-year-old Cameroonian woman, who prefers to remain anonymous, describes her torment.
โIt’s horrible,โ says the young woman. โThey treat us as if we weren’t human beingsโ.
– New camps? –
National Guard spokesman Houcem Eddine Jebabli insists that the dismantling was carried out in a “humane” manner, stressing that his men did not use tear gas.
Asked about the fate of the migrants now that their camps had been destroyed, the official said that a large proportion would benefit from โvoluntary returnsโ, while others had โdispersed into the wildโ.
As of April 2, the IOM said it had already carried out 1,740 voluntary returns, after almost 7,000 last year, three times as many as in 2023.
Romdhane Ben Amor, from the NGO Forum tunisien pour les droits รฉconomiques et sociaux (FTDES), is skeptical about this heavy-handed operation by the authorities, using dozens of police vans and tractors.
For him, it’s an attempt to โscatter as many migrants as possible in the wilderness to calm tensions among the local populationโ.
A strategy which, in his opinion, โwill not succeedโ. โThe migrants will gather and build new camps because they have no shelterโ, he maintains.
On Saturday, a few kilometers from El Amra, migrants were walking along the side of the road, towards other olive groves.
Humaniterre with AFP
