Migrants in Tunisia recently have narrated their ordeal in the hands of citizens of the country who have exposed them to various human abuse, such as xenophobic attacks.
A migrant who lives in Sfax, an industrial city in Tunisia revealed how masked attackers broke into her home and chased her out.
She said teenagers came to her apartment in the middle of the night, throwing stones at her and holding a knife to her throat, as her neighbour who is a citizen of the country had to help her with a blanket as she fled with her baby without clothes.
Some of the migrants left their home country for Tunisia about a year ago in search of greener pastures.
They were attacked during xenophobic violence, which happened about a week ago after the fatal stabbing of a 41-year-old local man which lead to an altercation with several migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.
In the wake of the violence, several migrants took refuge alongside the dusty road holding peace signs.
Some locals assisted the migrants by giving them bread and water.
Many migrants spent the night sleeping on the concrete, wondering why the city had erupted into such violence.
A woman, suffering from heat stroke, lay nearly unconscious, while many were carrying visible injuries from July 4, 2023 attacks.
Despite the presence of police, the intervention is quite poor.
However, the authorities did respond the very next morning, by forcibly removing over a hundred migrants from the city and driving them to the Tunisian-Libyan border.
Another thousand migrants have since been removed from the city and taken to both the Libyan and Algerian borders.
Several migrants at the Tunisian-Libyan border were beaten by the authorities and left with open wounds and deep cuts.
Meanwhile, Tunisia’s President Kais Saied rejected all claims of mistreatment against migrants and said they were receiving aid within what he called “our values”.
Relative peace has now returned to the streets of Sfax. The discurssion about the attacks is what many are talking about.
An activist, says she is outraged but not surprised by the violence which took place last week.
Earlier this year the President made highly inflammatory comments, alleging that hordes of sub-Saharan African migrants were bringing violence and crime into the country.
With only cardboard to lie on, and under a few trees to seek shade from the scorching sun, the odour of rotting food from the dump surrounds the migrants.
One of the migrants says she has spent four days with her family in the open because they don’t have any other place to stay. I am just so tired. I feel like giving up, says the migrant, a mother-of-two from Sierra Leone.
However, some locals are helping the migrants by hosting them and providing them with shelter and food, and they are of the opinion that the Tunisian authorities should offer them all legal status.
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