Nearly a month after the president’s controversial remarks, the situation has calmed down relatively for the sub-Saharan migrants still present in the country. In a speech, Kaïs Saïed, had denounced the arrival of “hordes of illegal migrants” in the country. Statements that had encouraged aggression and opened a hunt for sub-Saharan Africans living in Tunisia. While some countries such as Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea have voluntarily repatriated their nationals, some sub-Saharan Africans have chosen to stay in Tunisia and associations still report many social emergency situations and nearly 800 arrests between February and March.
With our correspondent in Tunis, Lilia Blaise
Many sub-Saharan migrants still remain in precarious situations according to several Tunisian NGOs. Every day, those who usually deal with assistance to migrants, still receive requests for emergency accommodation, requests which had doubled just after the words of Kaïs Saïed.
Legal aid has been mobilized on hundreds of cases of arrests, many of which remain unresolved with many migrants sentenced to two or even three months in prison for illegal stay in the territory. Others were able to be released on the basis of the procedural defects denounced by the lawyers during the arrests. Arrests which have decreased in recent days even if the Tunisian authorities still do not give figures. Many Sub-Saharan students said they were able to resume their face-to-face lessons.
Outside Tunis, the same social emergency is reported on the side of Sfax in the east of the country where the pace of arrests has also slowed down. On the other hand, the city is facing the resurgence of irregular departures at sea. The Tunisian National Guard announced on Saturday that it had rescued nearly 635 sub-Saharan migrants whose clandestine boats were shipwrecked on the night of March 17 to 18.
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