Staff Writer
Several migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were forcibly removed from the city or fled as racial tensions in the seaside city of Sfax, Tunisia, erupted into violence, according to witnesses on Wednesday.
According to a local rights organization, police captured some migrants late on Tuesday during the protests and deported them more than 300 kilometers (nearly 200 miles) to the Libyan border.
The most recent disturbance began following the funeral of a 41-year-old Tunisian who died Monday after being fatally stabbed during a fight between locals and migrants that resulted in the arrest of three suspects from Cameroon.
after a fatal stabbing, African migrants are targeted in Sfax.
Several migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were forcibly removed from the city or fled as racial tensions in the seaside city of Sfax, Tunisia, erupted into violence, according to witnesses on Wednesday.
In internet video footage from the victim’s funeral, young people can be heard chanting, “We are going to avenge his death!”
Many migrants leave from Sfax, the second-largest city in North Africa, in an effort to travel by sea to the island of Lampedusa, which is about 130 kilometers (80 miles) away, and eventually Italy, a member of the EU.
According to an AFP correspondent, hundreds of incensed locals gathered in the streets of Sfax late on Tuesday to demand the removal of all illegal immigrants. Some blocked roads and lit tires on fire.
Social media users posted videos of police cheering as they chased dozens of migrants away from their homes and loaded them into police vehicles.
Lazhar Neji, a doctor working in the emergency room of a municipal hospital, lamented “an inhumane… bloody night that makes you tremble” on the Facebook page of the neighborhood group Sayeb Trottoir.
He claimed that between 30 and 40 injured migrants, including women and children, had been brought to the hospital. He claimed that “some were thrown from terraces, while others were attacked with swords.”
‘Psychosis’ and fear
Following President Kais Saied’s remarks in February blaming “hordes” of illegal immigrants of bringing violence and suggesting a “criminal plot” to alter the country’s demographics, Tunisia has seen an increase in racially motivated attacks.
With a population of 12 million, 21,000 migrants from other African countries are thought to reside in Tunisia, making up 0.2% of the country’s total population.
In order to support Tunisia’s efforts to combat illegal immigration and strengthen its faltering economy, Europe has pledged financial support.
Tunesia “does not accept that anyone who does not respect its laws stays on its territory, uses it as a transit country, or uses it to resettle nationals of certain African countries,” Saied emphasized during a visit to the interior ministry on Tuesday.
Franck Yotedje, director of the Afrique Intelligence organization, urged the Tunisian authorities to uphold its responsibility to “ensure the safety of the residents of Sfax, Tunisians and foreigners” in a Facebook comment, claiming that the violence in Tunisia is once again causing dread and “psychosis” among migrants.
The “Radical Solution”
According to an AFP photographer, during the violence in Sfax, scores of migrants rushed to the train station to board trains to other Tunisian cities.
Other videos posted online showed migrants waiting for police to arrive so they could be turned over as they were lying on the ground with their hands on their heads and being encircled by locals carrying sticks.
According to Romdane Ben Amor, the leader of the non-governmental organization Forum for Economic and Social Rights, police took some migrants to the location of the Sfax International Fair before transporting them elsewhere.
Without being able to provide exact numbers, he told AFP that some migrants had been transported to a location close to the Libyan border.
The influential UGTT trade union’s branch in Sfax said that the government has increased illegal immigration “by acting as the Mediterranean policeman, intercepting the boats of illegal Sub-Saharan African migrants and transporting them to Sfax.”
It demanded that Saied’s government “find a radical solution” to the issue of the “thousands of illegal sub-Saharan migrants” and warned against turning the Sfax region into a hub for their gathering or resettlement in an effort to appease Italy and Europe.
