RECIT – North of Sfax, more than 50,000 sub-Saharan migrants are camped out awaiting a crossing to Europe. Living like beasts in the shade of olive trees, at the mercy of Tunisian smugglers and the assaults of the National Guard funded by the European Commission, they feel trapped. Some would even like to return home.
They walk barefoot, in slippers or sneakers found at the water’s edge. In clusters of three or four, these African nationals, dressed in dark down jackets, crowd into northern Tunisia: the dream of Europe is within their grasp. Soon, they’ll be shivering as much from the cold as from fear.
“We left at around 10 p.m. without a light on, without making a sound, recounts Bilal, a 19-year-old Chadian, about his attempt to win the Italian coast two months ago. We’d walked 4 kilometers through the night, carrying our boat on our shoulders. There were 48 of us, fifteen too many… Some people just turn up at the last minute. Women with babies… When we reached the open sea, we started the engine. We had eight cans of petrol on board, enough to get us to Italy. Then the Tunisian National Guard blocked us 16 kilometers from entering Italian waters. Their boat got closer and closer, circling in the water closer and closer…
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