AFP
Tunisia: Sub-Saharan people on alert after Saied’s indictment
‘We want to go home’: Constant arrived at the Ivory Coast embassy in Tunisia early Friday to be repatriated after a spate of arrests and very harsh remarks by President Kais Saied against migrants from sub-Saharan countries. A non-stop ballet of taxis for two hours dropped off dozens of people who had come hoping that Abidjan would organize a return flight as soon as possible. A couple who were evicted from their accommodation even left backpacks and suitcases on the sidewalk. Three young women get out of a car driven by an elegant Tunisian man. On condition of anonymity, she confided to AFP that “they have been employees of her beauty salon for two years” who accompanied her To to leave Tunisia “where they no longer feel safe.” For Aboubacar Dobe, Director of Radio Libre Francophone, an African community medium, “it is evident that there is a difference between before and after the speech” of President Saied’ arrival of “hordes of illegal immigrants” and “a criminal enterprise to alter demographic makeup” of the country, remarks condemned on Friday by the African Union, which has urged its member states to “refrain from any racist hate speech that could harm people”. .. “When it was just the Tunisian Nationalist Party (openly racist, ed.) or social networks, people said that the state will protect them now until they feel abandoned,” Herr explains Dobe and says he himself is the target of phone threats. Constant, who has been unemployed for six months, has formed a WhatsApp group of migrants wanting to return. Many of them, in recent nights, have denounced fires at the foot of buildings or attempts to break into the homes of compatriots in Tunis and Sfax, a city from which dozens of irregular migrants regularly leave for Europe, they beat us, they mistreat us. For security reasons, we prefer to come to our embassy To for the return,” says Wilfrid Badia, 34, who has been living off odd jobs ever since. 6 years old For Hosni Maati, a lawyer at the Paris Bar who oversees the Association of Ivorians in Tunisia, “since the President’s speech people have completely let go.” Authorities “closed their eyes,” he explains. This has allowed some to “exploit” low-wage labour, along with “bona fide employers faced with administrative twists and turns”, making them difficult to legalize. The arrests began two weeks ago and have involved up to 400 people, most of whom have since been released, according to NGOs and witnesses. , Vice-President of the Committee of Sub-Saharan Leaders, reports on a “psychosis within the community” that also includes Senegalese, Guineans, Congolese or Comoros who “felt at the mercy of the people’s vengeance”. Depiction of a climate of panic: The association of sub-Saharan students AESAT has been recommending them since Wednesday “not to go out, even to class, until the authorities ensure our effective protection against these slips and attacks”. Gnabli, who also represents the Ivorians in Tunisia, is convinced that given the influx of Registrations at the embassy will organize repatriation flights to bring back those who want “safety” and to the population to “treat them with dignity” and not throw them into the streets if they cannot pay their rent. Hair salons and informal African restaurants that have sprung up in recent years have had their curtains drawn permanently, brightly colored facades disappearing under white paint. There is also no trace of the day care center, where around sixty children have been cared for on a voluntary basis for five years. fka/ezz/hme/sr