In Tunisia, shipwrecks of irregular boats have increased in recent weeks. Twenty-nine migrants died in three different shipwrecks last week, more than 132 have disappeared since the beginning of January 2023. Report in Sfax, whose 150 kilometers of coast are the starting points for many boats to Europe.
With our correspondent in Tunisia, Lilia Blaise
For survivors of shipwrecks, the post-disaster period is difficult. You have to manage the psychological trauma, start from scratch because a large part of the savings was used to finance the crossing. But, despite having come close to death, many sub-Saharan migrants say they want to start over, unable to imagine that their situation will improve in Tunisia. Returning home is also not an option.
” Miracle »
In the emergency accommodation provided by the NGO Terre d’Asile, this young woman, 30, who wishes to remain anonymous, is gradually rebuilding herself after experiencing a traumatic shipwreck in December. She lost her companion there and saved in extremis her daughter : ” We didn’t get help until the next day at eight o’clock in the morning when we saw a fisherman, so several people died, including my partner too, but God worked this miracle that I went out with the little girl.. »
To survive, “ we had inner tubes “, says this Cameroonian who does not want her family back home to know her story, hence her choice of anonymity. Simple inner tubes for a buoy and a ten-month-old baby in her arms for almost ten hours in the water, despite this ordeal, the young woman is thinking of leaving, having no means of economic survival in Tunisia. She worked as a cleaner in Nabeul, 230 kilometers from Sfax and had only come to the port city for the crossing.
” We no longer feel safe in Tunisia so it still pushes us to want to leave the country, to take a little more risk by trying to cross the Mediterranean. There for the moment I cannot stay in Cameroon and neither can I stay in Tunisia “, she says. Authorities and NGOs are noticing an upsurge in departures regardless of the weather.
Of the ” african organizers »
Faouzi Masmoudi, the spokesperson for the city court, explains the new departure methods, especially for sub-Saharan migrants, the most affected by the latest shipwrecks: “ Before, the organizers were practically people from the city, Sfaxiens, Tunisians. But now, we see more and more African organizers. They are more and more involved. »
” It’s logisticssays Faouzi Masmoudi, that makes these people know the place, know how to do, how to organize and there is also an important factor since Sfax is an industrial city, a certain period and when they want to leave, they can do it when they find the opportunity. There is a whole organization, for example, since the year 2022, we have observed that there are new kinds of ships, we are now manufacturing iron ships. It is very dangerous, there is no safety for these boats, before we used wooden ships. For iron ships it is not controlled, it is not authorized but people are using it more and more but unfortunately shipwrecks are made by these ships. »
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