'We want to go home': Constant came early Friday to the Ivory Coast embassy in Tunisia to be repatriated, after a wave of arrests and very harsh remarks by President Kais Saied against migrants sub-Saharans.
For two hours, an incessant ballet of taxis dropped off dozens of people who had come in the hope that Abidjan would organize return flights as soon as possible.
A couple, evicted from their accommodation, left backpacks and suitcases on the sidewalk.
Three young women get out of a car driven by an elegant Tunisian. On condition of anonymity, she confided to AFP that "they have been employees of her beauty salon for two years" whom she accompanied to register to leave Tunisia "where they no longer feel safe. ".
For Aboubacar Dobe, director of Radio Libre Francophone, an African community media, "it is obvious that there is a difference between before and after the speech" of President Saied.
Tuesday evening, Mr. Saied announced "urgent measures" against illegal sub-Saharan immigration in Tunisia, denouncing the arrival of "hordes of illegal immigrants" and "a criminal enterprise to change the demographic composition" of the country. Remarks condemned by the African Union which invited its member states to "refrain from any hate speech of a racist nature, likely to harm people".
"When it was just the Tunisian Nationalist Party (openly racist, editor's note) or social networks, people said to themselves that the state was going to protect them but now they feel abandoned", explains Mr. Dobe, saying himself to do the subject of telephone threats.
Constant, who has been out of work for six months, has formed a WhatsApp group of migrants wanting to return. Many of them denounce in recent nights fires at the foot of buildings or attempts to intrude on compatriots in Tunis and Sfax, a city from which dozens of irregular migrants regularly leave for Europe.
"The landlords (owners) kick us out, they beat us, they mistreat us. For more security, we prefer to come to our embassy to register to return," says Wilfrid Badia, 34, who has been living on odd jobs for 6 years. years.
For Hosni Maati, lawyer at the Paris bar, who assists the Association of Ivorians in Tunisia, "since the president's speech, people have let go completely".
The situation of illegality of many sub-Saharans is not new, but before the authorities "closed their eyes", he explains. This allowed some to "exploit" low-cost workers, alongside "bona fide employers who face administrative meanders" making any regularization difficult.
The arrests began two weeks ago and involved up to 400 people, most of whom have since been released, according to NGOs and testimonies.
"We do not settle such a complex situation with a speech and arrests at all costs", pleads the Franco-Tunisian lawyer.
Jean Bedel Gnabli, vice-president of the Committee of sub-Saharan leaders, reports a "psychosis within the community" which also includes Senegalese, Guineans, Congolese or Comorians, who "felt delivered to popular vengeance".
Illustration of a climate of panic: the association of sub-Saharan students AESAT has been recommending them since Wednesday "not to go out, even to go to class, until the authorities ensure our effective protection against these slippages and attacks".
Mr. Gnabli, who also represents Ivorians in Tunisia, is convinced that faced with the influx of registrations at the embassy, Abidjan will organize repatriation flights to bring back those who wish.
In the meantime, he appeals to the Tunisian authorities to "ensure their safety" and to the population to "treat them with dignity" and not throw them out on the street when they cannot pay their rent.
20 km north of Tunis, in the district of Bhar Lazreg, the informal African hairdressing salons and restaurants created in recent years have lowered the curtains permanently, colorful facades have disappeared under white paint. No trace either of the day-care center where volunteers had been taking care of some sixty children for five years.
On Saturday afternoon, several hundred people, including artists, defenders of human rights and minorities, demonstrated in the center of Tunis chanting "Down with fascism, Tunisia is an African land", "Solidarity with migrants without papers” or “President of shame apologizes”.
02/25/2023 18:14:45 - Tunis (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
