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.
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 envisage an improvement in their situation in Tunisia. Returning home is also not an option.
“Miracle”
In the emergency accommodation provided by the NGO Terre d’Asile, a 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 her daughter in extremis: “We didn’t have help until the next day at eight o’clock in the morning when we saw a fisherman, so several people died, including my spouse. But God did this miracle that I went out with the little one.”
To survive, “we had inner tubes”, says this Cameroonian again. Simple tubes for buoys and a 10 month old baby in the arms for almost 10 hours in the water. Despite this ordeal, the young woman thinks of leaving, having no means of living in Tunisia.
“We no longer feel safe in Tunisia so it still pushes us to want to leave the country, to take a little more risk trying to cross the Mediterranean. For the moment I can’t stay in Cameroon and neither stay in Tunisia,” she said. Authorities and NGOs are noticing an upsurge in departures regardless of the weather.
Faouzi Masmoudi, the spokesperson for the city court, explains the new methods of departure, 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 you see more and more African organizers. They are more and more involved.”
