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Piles of refuse and the residual scent of human waste are the only signs that remain of the hundreds of sub-Saharan African migrants who had until recently been crowded by the International Organisation for Migration’s (IOM) offices in Tunis.
Early on May 3, Tunisian authorities forcibly evacuated the migrants before taking bulldozers to the makeshift encampment they had established by the IOM offices in a nearby park and adjacent alleyway, abutted by ostentatious buildings in the affluent Berges du Lac neighbourhood by Tunis Lake.
Evacuations continued elsewhere in the capital the following day, with authorities rounding up an estimated 500 to 700 displaced people onto buses, according to Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesman for the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES).
Social media footage shows that some of the migrants and refugees have since been left stranded near the Tunisian border with Algeria — without access to water, food or shelter. Mr Amor estimates that at least 80 were detained.
“Among them were elderly people, children and pregnant women”, said Adelaide Massimi, project coordinator at the Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI), who added that some migrants had also been “taken to inland areas of the country” and “abandoned far from population centres.”
Tunisian President Kais Saied said in a National Security Council meeting on May 6 that authorities had expelled 400 migrants on the country’s eastern border. The government had not responded to requests for further information on the expelled migrants at the time of publication.
In recent years, thousands of migrants have gathered in Tunisia while they flee government repression, poverty and conflict from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Many hope to cross the Mediterranean to Europe and nearby Italy, which is accessible by bordering islands just 100 kilometres away.
“Tunisia will not accept to be a place of settlement for these people nor will it accept to be a transit destination,” Saied said on May 6, parroting unsubstantiated claims that malign actors had poured millions in foreign funds to resettle migrants in an ethnic replacement scheme.
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The expulsions reflect the precarious limbo thousands of irregular migrants have been forced into by Tunisian authorities. Similar evacuations have been reported near Sfax, Tunisia’s second largest city, while alleged beatings, torture and arbitrary arrests and tensions with locals have compounded the insecurity of many who already complain of sickness and a lack of food and water.
“We are suffering”, said Bullah, a Sudanese refugee camped with thousands of other migrants near the port city of Sfax. “In the camp, everything is difficult.”
‘I’m hoping to cross this Mediterranean to go to Europe’
Estimates suggest roughly 15,000 migrants live rough in isolated areas near El Amra and Jebeniana. Located some 30 and 50 kilometres north of the port city of Sfax, the towns have become key departure points for Europe-bound sea journeys.
Many in the migrant camps hope to reach Italy on sea voyages to the island of Lampedusa, which sits some 150 kilometres away. The maritime crossings have proven deadly, with over 2,476 people going missing trying to reach Italy in 2023 alone.
But to some, the wait in Tunisia has become more perilous than the sea.
In a makeshift encampment near El Arma, bumps have begun to spread across Bullah’s face and hands. “I am not in good health,” the 28-year-old told Byline Times. “There is no money for the medicine”.
“So many people have been missing, so many kids. There are some kids here without parents”
Josephues, a Sierra Leonean refugee
Reports of kidnappings, torture and trafficking at camps have made matters worse. In March, 27 international and national NGOs