'Inhuman treatment': Sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia endure attacks that are making life 'unbearable'

Marie, a 23-year-old migrant from Sierra Leone, has seen more than her fair share of suffering in the last year. 

After losing her husband to political violence and falling deep into poverty, she made the difficult decision “to seek a better life for herself and her children” abroad, embarking on an arduous journey from West to North Africa, she told The New Arab.    

Like thousands of sub-Saharan migrants fleeing civil strife, persecution, or economic despair in their homelands, Marie, whose name has been changed along with other migrants in this article, made her journey partly on foot, crossing the borders of Guinea, Mali, and Algeria before reaching Libya.

But in Libya, a country deeply engulfed in its own civil conflict, she saw widespread disregard for human rights, particularly towards black migrants, who are known to be openly traded in modern-day slave markets.

She heard from friends that bordering Tunisia would be a safer destination, so she set off again, trekking for two days across the Sahara Desert with her two children, aged 2 and 6, on her back. 

Instead of finding respite, Marie encountered even more hardship in Tunisia. In the coastal town of Sfax, where many sub-Saharan migrants congregate because it is a clandestine sea gateway to Europe, Marie experienced intense racism from locals who wanted black migrants out of the city, she said.

"Young guys broke into our home in the middle of the night with weapons and attacked us"

The situation escalated on July 3 after a Tunisian was killed in clashes with sub-Saharans, triggering a wave of violence, arbitrary arrests, and expulsions of black migrants.

“Young guys broke into our home in the middle of the night with weapons and attacked us,” said Marie, sitting next to her two daughters in a dilapidated tent outside of the headquarters of the International Organization of Migration (IOM) in Tunis, where she has now sought refuge.

“We managed to run away, but then the police caught us, drove us to the desert near Libya (more than 300 kilometres away), and left us there.” 

While Marie was fortunate enough to escape the remote border zone, hundreds of others, including women, children, and asylum-seekers, remain stranded there and near the Algerian border, enduring scorching summer temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius with limited access to food and water. At least two migrants have died there.

According to migrants interviewed by rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW), Tunisian authorities committed numerous abuses while transporting migrants to the desert, destroying their phones and belongings, subjecting them to beatings, and sexually harassing women.

“They beat us like animals… punching, kicking, slapping, hitting us with batons,” said one Ivorian migrant interviewed by HRW.

After nearly a week, Tunisian authorities transferred some migrants inland, but left hundreds more to blister in the desert heat, at risk of acute dehydration and death.

They are in urgent need of a "rights-respecting solution to get to safety,” said Lauren Seibert, a refugee and migrant rights researcher at HRW who has been documenting the abuse of sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia. 

"Sfax is not safe... the racism is unbearable. We were attacked by individuals wielding knives and sticks, who insisted that we 'leave their country because we are black.' I witnessed a girl jump off a balcony to save her life, and she ended up breaking both her legs"

Even for the migrants who evaded the desert expulsions and escaped overt violence in Sfax, their circumstances remain dire. They struggle with homelessness, impoverishment, and injuries that have left them demoralised, many told The New Arab. 

One migrant seen by The New Arab was beaten so severely in Sfax that he lost two of his teeth and had a broken leg. Others said they were too exhausted to retell the trauma they suffered. 

Joseph, a 27-year-old migrant from Sierra Leone who fled Sfax and joined hundreds of migrants outside the IOM's headquarters in Tunis, said, "Sfax is not safe... the racism is unbearable. We were attacked by individuals wielding knives and sticks, who insisted that we 'leave their country because we are black.' I witnessed a girl jump off a balcony to save her life, and she ended up breaking both her legs."

Marie, is now unsure where she will go or how she will provide for her two young children. “The way they treat us is inhuman,” she added.

The surge of violence comes after months of mounting tensions in Sfax between Tunisians and sub-Saharans, who have become convenient scapegoats for deteriorating living conditions and economic hardships, say activists.

In February, Tunisian President Kais Saied sparked public anger at sub-Saharan migrants, who make up no more than 0.4% of the population, by accusing them of being a “demographic threat” to the country. 

Several Tunisian deputies have since added fuel to the fire, blaming migrants for spreading crime and diseases and calling on the president to “save Sfax” from their increasing presence. 

"It is a way to dehumanise them, to ‘other’ them"

Reem Garfi, a human rights activist with the anti-racist organisation Mnemty, told The New Arab that “populists have succeeded in (baselessly) convincing many Tunisians that sub-Saharans are a threat to their safety, their homes, their jobs, that they are here to replace them.

"It is a way to dehumanise them, to ‘other’ them," she said.

The prejudice against them is intensified by deep-seated racism that much of the population is unwilling to face, says Garfii, who is mixed race.

“Black migrants are being discriminated against on the basis of their race. When they are insulted or harassed, people use racial slurs and propagate racial stereotypes... For many people who see themselves as white or Arab, black migrants are considered a lower rank, at least subconsciously... They are the only ethnic minority that has been discriminated against to this extent.” 

Tunisia’s crackdown on black migrants appears to fly in the face of a 2018 law that explicitly prohibits “racial discrimination.”

Celebrated as a groundbreaking achievement for the region, this legislation specifically condemns racist language, and racist acts, and imposes severe penalties for inciting racist hatred, making racist threats, or publicly advocating racism.

But the legislation, says Garfi, whose organisation helped advocate for it, is only as good as the government’s will to implement it.

“It will only be effective if those responsible for enforcing it have the right awareness, understanding, and commitment to its principles,” she said. 

"Tunisia lacks the necessary humanitarian infrastructure... and migrants have no one to turn to"

As a result, sub-Saharan migrants stranded in Tunisia are left with few avenues for recourse. And their status is even more precarious due to Tunisia's ambiguous and outdated migration law, as well as overburdened aid agencies, explained Ahlam Chemlali, a PhD fellow at the Danish Institute for International Studies and a visiting scholar at Yale University, whose research focuses on migration and border policies in North Africa.

"Tunisia lacks the necessary humanitarian infrastructure... and migrants have no one to turn to," Chemlali told The New Arab.

For migrants like Joseph, frustration is building over a perceived lack of concern from international agencies and the public. 

“What I want to say to European and African governments: We need help, we need homes,” he said. 

Garfi, reflecting on the violent turn against sub-Saharan migrants, says it is especially saddening given the internal migration challenges of Tunisia, which has seen tens of thousands of its own citizens leave clandestinely for Europe in recent years.

“As Tunisians, we know very well what pushes someone to risk their life at the very small chance of finding a better life,” she said. 

Stephen Quillen is a Tunis-based journalist and editor covering North African affairs. He has also written for The Telegraph, Al-Monitor, Middle East Eye, the EU Observer, and The Arab Weekly.

Follow him on Twitter: @stephen_quillen