Ivorian migrant Fofana Daouda and his five flatmates spent weeks sleeping on the streets of Tunis recently after their landlord evicted them from their home as a wave of racism targeting sub-Saharan Africans washed across Tunisia.
The violence, in which migrants and some black Tunisians have been attacked in the streets and thrown out of their jobs and homes, has helped fuel an already escalating surge of migration across the Mediterranean that is alarming EU members — especially Italy, on whose shores many first arrive in Europe.
Daouda plans to join the exodus. “I can’t work here anymore because people are afraid to hire us,” said the 19-year-old, who has worked in Tunisia for two years as a painter in the construction sector.
Attacks against migrants spiralled after Kais Saied, Tunisia’s increasingly authoritarian president, said in February there was a “criminal conspiracy” to settle sub-Saharan Africans in Tunisia and change its “demographic composition”. He referred to “hordes” of illegal migrants, “with all the violence, crime and unacceptable practices that entails”.
Chaima Bouhlel, a Tunisian political commentator and civil society activist, said: “When he spoke about demographic change, he legitimised racism.”
The hostile climate has sent many fleeing, often with tragic results. In the past two weeks, dozens of migrants have drowned off Tunisia’s coast in six separate incidents when their boats sank. But the danger does not deter Daouda. “I know many friends who made it to Italy,” he said. “You have to take a risk. My mother has half the money for the crossing, but she wants me to go home. I’m negotiating with her.”
According to Italy’s interior ministry, since the beginning of the year some 15,600 people have arrived in the country on boats that originated in Tunisia — a tenfold increase on the same period last year.
The influx has alarmed Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s rightwing government, which has pledged to crack down on illegal immigration. In a bid to deter people from attempting the dangerous crossing, Rome has restricted the activities of humanitarian groups that operate rescue boats for migrants at risk of drowning.
Meloni’s government has also demanded other EU states show “solidarity” by accommodating more of the irregular migrants that reach Italian shores. Last year 105,131 people arrived in Italy via the Mediterranean, up from 67,477 in 2021 and 34,154 in 2020.
“The Italians are terrified of migration,” said a Tunis-based western diplomat. “Last year the numbers went up a lot and this year the increase is substantial.”
The flow of migrants includes not only sub-Saharan Africans, but also Tunisians escaping their country’s economic crisis. According to the International Organization for Migration, about 1,600 Tunisians crossed the Mediterranean on smugglers’ boats in the first three months of 2023, up from 900 in the same period last year.
Beset by inflation and food shortages, Tunisia’s debt has reached 90 per cent of its gross domestic product, with economists warning of a rising risk of default. A $1.9bn IMF bailout remains stalled after Saied refused to endorse it, and donors fear he will refuse to implement reforms agreed by his government if disbursement starts before he does so.
The country is also mired in political upheaval after Saied moved in 2021 to concentrate power in his own hands. He has rewritten the constitution to remove checks and balances on presidential power and replaced the democratically elected parliament with a toothless assembly, while opponents have been jailed.
Italy fears Tunisia’s economic implosion will push as many as 900,000 people across the Mediterranean towards Europe via Italy this year. Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, warned last month that the social and economic “collapse” of the north African nation would fuel a wave of migration.
Meloni and Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani have been lobbying the IMF, Brussels and US to release the first tranche of the IMF loan even without Saied’s endorsement to prevent a full-blown financial crisis.
“These days, I spend my days on the phone with all the people I can to try to unlock an IMF loan to Tunisia, without which [the country] is at great financial risk,” Meloni said at a public function in March. “If things go wrong, will it be better or will it be worse for Tunisian citizens?”
In calls with top US officials, Rome has warned lack of western support for Tunisia would open the door to Russian and Chinese influence. “There is a geopolitical risk,” an Italian official told the Financial Times. “We need to find a road map to support the Tunisian economy without letting the country totally collapse.”
Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesman for the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, a civil society group, said Saied was scapegoating migrants to deflect attention from the failing economy and the political situation. “He is creating a new enemy and casting himself as a saviour,” he said.
“The Italians have clear demands in relation to migration but security measures have been insufficient to stop the flow. Saied’s objective is to create a hostile environment for migrants [to prevent them even coming to Tunisia].”
His policy may be having an impact despite the determination of Daouda and others to press on with their plans to reach Europe. Some African countries have already repatriated citizens who asked to go home. Kestia Ebothe, a Congolese cyber security student, who is in Tunisia legally, said he was making arrangements to return to his country after four years in Tunis.
“Since the president’s speech, people shout at us on the street to go home. I can no longer take the metro or public transport. Before I could say that Tunisians were the best people I ever met, but now it is as if there were some people who had something in their hearts that they could not express, and the president gave them permission.”
