On Monday April 29, the authorities carried out an operation in the Sfax metropolitan area officially aimed at combating illegal immigration and migrant traffickers. An intervention which took place while tensions were increasing in the region for several weeks.
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With our correspondent in Tunis, Amira Souilem
Armored, hooded and armed men, some of whom abseil from the roof, to the applause of local residents, the Tunisian authorities wanted to make an impression.
A few skirmishes, around twenty arrests and a building taken from migrants… A success for the Tunisian authorities. Dozens of sub-Saharan migrants lived in the targeted building, most of them waiting for an illegal crossing to Europe.
This is the latest operation to dislodge Tunisian security forces. The latter also operate in the spontaneous camps which have formed on the outskirts of the city of Sfax, a hub for departures.
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Deportations to desert regions and neighboring countries – which caused scandal last summer – also continue.
Overwhelmed by the phenomenon of irregular immigration, the Tunisian authorities can hardly count on the help of the International Organization for Migration, which is supposed to organize so-called voluntary returns to the countries of departure but which comes up against the lack of cooperation from certain countries. Africans in no hurry, it seems, to see their nationals return to the country.
A situation that cannot last, insists the Tunisian president.
A few hours after this operation, Kaïs Saïed received his Minister of the Interior at the Palace of Carthage to congratulate him on the intervention which took place, according to a press release, at the request of the Head of State.
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