Noël Hounkpatin has no time for the critical looks that follow him. The 25-year-old from Ivory Coast and his two friends Koffi and Seka are looking for cheap mobile phones in the medina of Sfax. Their smartphones were taken from them by Tunisian youths earlier this week. “They usually come in groups of four on two scooters and take what they need from us migrants in public and without many words,” says Hounkpatin, shrugging his shoulders. Telephones are the migrants’ only way to get home – and to the smugglers who offer departures to Italy along the coast between Sfax and the small town of La Louza. Like almost all of the 10,000 migrants living in Sfax, Noël Hounkpatin only wants one thing: by boat to Europe.
Just a few months ago, the three of them were welcome in Tunisia’s bustling commercial city. Even those who stayed longer than the three months allowed for tourists in the country found work and a rented apartment in no time at all. The somewhat faceless Sfax is the backbone of the Tunisian economy, which is short of labor due to the emigration of Tunisian youth to Europe. From Tunis, the city of 330,000 can be reached after a three-hour drive via the “Trans African Highway”. Tunisians like to smile at the sober determination of the inhabitants and the simple functionality of the prosperous city.
As of February 21, Africans feel they have no protection from the state
Perhaps it is precisely these characteristics that have made Sfax the target of numerous Libyan families, more than 4000 students from French-speaking Africa and job seekers from all over the world. “Although wages are low, so is the cost of living,” says Noël Hounkpatin thoughtfully, twisting braids into his beard with his fingers. “It was easy to bear it here.”
Until February 21st, the day that turned the lives of migrants and many business people in Sfax upside down. It was late afternoon when President Kais Saied, in front of the cameras and the generals of the “National Security Council”, described the migrants from West and Central Africa living in Tunisia as a conspiracy against the country. Certain powers want to use the large number of Africans living illegally in Tunisia to weaken Islam and the Arab identity of North Africa, says Saied in a gloomy tone.
He actually found it easy to live in Sfax, but now Noël Hounkpatin, who came from the Ivory Coast, just wants to get away. To Europe.
(Photo: Mirco Keilberth)
Two hours later, the police in Sfax began a wave of arrests, which initially also imprisoned students with residence permits. Saied’s critics interpret his speech as an attempt to distract from the dramatic drop in support for his coup in the summer of 2021. “We just experienced it as the starting point for a wave of violence,” says Noël Hounkpatin. “Many Tunisians may have had prejudices beforehand and only accepted us as cheap workers,” says the devout Muslim. “But on February 21, what had previously protected us Africans from attacks was gone: laws and the protection of the authorities.”
At least half of those arriving from Mali, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Congo and many other countries have since left Sfax, estimate experts at the Terre d’Asile citizens’ group, which is helping migrants during the biggest humanitarian crisis since the revolution . “Half of them flew back home, but at least 20 percent got on the boats to Italy,” confirm Hounkpatin and his friends.
The phone numbers of the smugglers can be found quickly on social media
They predict the next wave of landings on Lampedusa and Sicily for the coming weekend, when temperatures in Sfax will rise to 27 degrees. The Italian Coast Guard rescued more than 3,000 migrants on March 25, when the waves on the Mediterranean Sea allowed dinghies to travel for the first time this year.
Most of the black people you meet in Sfax are clearly under stress. “I lost my job. But I have to pay 450 dinars in rent, otherwise I’ll be out on the street,” says Mohamed from Cameroon, who makes a living selling fruit at the market and doesn’t want to give his last name. In addition to the equivalent of 120 euros in rental costs, he still had to pay 1,000 euros for the crossing to Italy and 150 euros for groceries per month. “But we lost all our jobs because it is now illegal to hire migrants.”
After setting up his smartphone, Noël Hounkpatin calls one of the many smugglers who offer their services along the beaches north of Sfax. Their numbers and the details of the departures are visible to everyone on Facebook or Instagram pages.
The smugglers, often fishermen from the area, direct the migrants to a certain kilometer point on the country road a few days before departure. “You will be picked up there and trained on the outboard motor and in navigation for three days,” says Mohamed. “When we’re all gone, a major economic crisis will break out here,” he says. “I get secret job offers every day, but I don’t want any trouble with the police.”
Many Tunisian shopkeepers have followed the official rhetoric of the presidential palace. “It’s all just a misunderstanding,” says the owner of the “Duo Clubs” café, where many migrants were employed as waitresses and also came there as customers. He doesn’t want to criticize the president, but he doesn’t know how things will continue without the migrants, who are often paid below the minimum wage.
The boats with which the migrants try to head for the Italian coast start from such beaches somewhere north of Sfax.
(Photo: Mirco Keilberth)
Because of what is probably the biggest economic crisis after Tunisia’s independence, not only are many restaurants and factories facing bankruptcy, but also the state itself. But President Saied is reluctant to accept a loan offered by the International Monetary Fund. This would involve reforming and dismantling the bureaucracy that has been bloated since 2011, Kais Saied’s power base.
On Monday, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune offered to lend to Tunisia with several Gulf countries. Word from the presidential palace is that Saied’s loan negotiations with those in power in Moscow and Beijing are said to be nearing completion. This means that the idea of asylum centers in North Africa, which has been raised again in EU circles, should be a thing of the past. “Many Tunisians are also unhappy about the populism against us,” says Noël Hounkpatin. “It’s damaging your country. Migration to Europe will at least not stop the campaign. Because we have nothing to hold us back in our homeland.”