Tunisia -

“My mother and sister sold their jewelry to secure the cost of my migration in 2018 across the shores of Kerkennah Island towards the Italian coasts”;

This is what the young W.F., from the governorate of Gabes (southern Tunisia), says.

W.F. (27 years old), who preferred not to reveal his name, was the Tunisian champion in the sport of kung fu for 3 consecutive years (2012, 2013 and 2014), and he won the President of the Republic’s award in the Arab Berber horse race in 2015.

On June 2, 2018, the boat he was carrying with 180 other irregular migrants sank, but he survived thanks to his mastery of swimming.

Feelings of injustice and lack of government support prompted him to leave the Tunisian national team (kung fu), and the narrowness of his family's living forced him to drop out of school early and remained unemployed.

In June 2022, he secretly left by sea, only to be deported from the detention center in Sicilia, Italy, to Tunisia, after his asylum request was rejected, but he insisted on repeating the attempt.

W.F. asserts that he has lost patience and trust in all politicians who "have been selling words since 2011 until today and have not kept their promises."

Some analysts believe that successive governments in Tunisia inherited the same mistakes and doubled the pressures of vulnerable groups (Reuters)

No job opportunities

As for the young man N.H., from the governorate of Sidi Bouzid (Central West), he says, "I quit my studies of my own volition because my relatives and friends graduated years ago and are still unemployed, so I lost hope."

N.H, 27, lives in a modest family. He says, "In order to find a job in construction, I have to travel 150 km towards the governorate of Sfax or 300 km towards the island of Djerba..." and adds sarcastically, "If you think of a small project, all doors are closed in your face. ".

The harshness of living and family pressures led him to think about migrating irregularly to Italy, and the matter depends on him collecting 3,000 dinars (one thousand dollars) for the trip. Build a house and start a family?

He lost hope in changing the situation in the country, "and the President of the Republic, Qais Saeed, is difficult to repair the ruins of 10 years in a year or more... I would prefer the sea than staying even if I did not arrive," he said.

17 years of trying

As for the Tunisian, Imad Bakari, he left Sidi Bouzid on July 21, 2022 in an irregular manner, and arrived in Lampedusa, Italy, and remained detained with his friends for 24 hours, "then they released us inside the country," he told Al Jazeera Net.

In 2005, the 42-year-old construction worker Bakari tried to migrate irregularly 5 times, but failed in all of them, and for 17 years he waited for his social conditions to improve, which worsened and he remained unemployed.

The need for adventure prompted him to search for reasons for a better life for himself and his family. "I no longer have any hope that the country's conditions will change for the better, and life in Sidi Bouzid is very difficult and lacks job opportunities and stability," he said.


The increase in irregular migration

The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (an independent human rights organization) monitors the increase in the number of Tunisian irregular migrants between July 2021 and the same month of this year 2022, as the number of arrivals to Europe via various routes reached more than 20,000 Tunisians.

Forum statistics indicate a recent increase in the number of Tunisian irregular migrants, compared to previous years. The number of irregular arrivals to Italy reached 858 in 2019 and 5,655 in 2020.

According to the same source, Tunisian nationality ranked first in arrivals to Italy with a rate of 18%, after it was ranked third in the first half of this year, and the number of Tunisian minors arriving in Italy was estimated at 1,242 and the number of families arriving at 300 since the beginning of 2022.

social flood

Sociologist Sami Nasr describes the phenomenon of irregular migration in Tunisia as "a social flood that sweeps away everything, and is not stopped by official communications or warnings, nor by pictures of dead and drowned migrants."

Nasr says to Al-Jazeera Net that this flood has become includes the elderly, children, girls, pregnant women, entire families, the educated and the uneducated, and it has become a phenomenon of heavy size.

In his opinion, all parties in Tunisia should study this phenomenon as an encrypted message that Tunisians of all segments of their society "lost hope for a better tomorrow in their country and saw that hope in the country of emigration, and this is what prompted them to sacrifice their lives."

Nasr believes that reducing the motives of irregular migration to financial conditions and unemployment is a wrong approach, citing the presence of well-off Tunisian irregular migrants or those who have held positions in the state.

Spokesman for the Tunisian Forum: The state has not worked to restore hope to young people (Al-Jazeera)

motivating factors

In turn, the official spokesman for the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, Ramadan Ben Omar, listed the factors motivating migration, saying that the first of them is "the country's difficult and complex economic situation that casts a shadow on the most vulnerable groups, in addition to the repercussions of the Corona pandemic."

Ben Omar spoke to Al Jazeera Net about the psychological factor that is related to individuals' perceptions of their country, "as most Tunisians are not optimistic about a future in which Tunisia will transcend its current crisis."

Ben Omar referred to the reality of freedoms that Tunisians see as better in the diaspora, "because today we know the security dominance over the public space in Tunisia and the most vulnerable groups concerned with immigration," in addition to the family factor to get rid of family pressure and help the family.

He pointed to great frustration with the political performance, "which we saw in 2017 and 2018, and then since July 25, 2021 (President Kais Saied's exceptional measures) with the influx of irregular immigration numbers and their messages saying that Tunisia and those who govern it are not the ones who will achieve the aspirations of immigrants, and the political authorities must Do not interfere in the matter of their forced deportation."

To put an end to this phenomenon, Sami Nasr stresses the need for Tunisians to see their country better in its political, economic, social, moral and cultural aspects, "because we feel as if we are living abroad in our country."

The forum's spokesperson called on the Tunisian state to develop a strategy to create hope for Tunisians through serious projects and an effective communication plan, "because they are two things that are unfortunately missing in Tunisia today."

State responsibility

For his part, Benomar holds those who have succeeded in ruling in recent years and the current authority politically responsible for "producing the practices of the previous regimes themselves through economic policies that depend on the International Monetary Fund, and that lead to pressure on vulnerable groups and do not go towards achieving effective justice and an economic and social alternative."

He criticizes the acceptance of the ruling authority today, "playing the role of guarding the European borders, harnessing all human and logistical capabilities to submit to European pressures, and making its priority to combat irregular immigration instead of resisting smuggling, pollution and terrorism, and its approval of the deportation of Tunisians."

He stresses that the state, "especially the President of the Republic, who spent 3 years at the helm of diplomacy, did not make any effort to restore employment contracts and open up areas for safe and orderly migration for these people."

Ben Omar believes that finding solutions to this phenomenon "in light of this political scene that has no alternative and a clear vision is difficult," and that the priority today is to establish freedom of movement and reciprocity with the countries of the North;

"Waiting for a political authority capable of imposing this."

It stresses the importance of reconsidering economic and development policies, purifying the general political climate, respecting freedoms, and concentrating a real democratic state that enforces the law, not a policy of impunity, to achieve stability that restores hope for Tunisians.

Some analysts believe that financial need is not the only motive for Tunisians to emigrate, but rather the narrowing of freedoms and the loss of hope for change as well (Anatolia)

Responsibility

Writer and political analyst Mohamed Dhouib believes that the current authority does not bear all the guilt, "but is only responsible for the absence of economic and social reforms," ​​noting that "there are indications that the crisis will be resolved soon, especially with the authorities stopping the organizers of irregular migration trips on the island of Djerba and on the Tunisian coast."

He tells Al Jazeera Net that the government is the beneficiary of the large number of young people leaving due to the protest movements they are implementing to demand employment, in addition to benefiting from the settlement of the conditions of immigrant youth in the European receiving countries, as they will be a major contributor to the country's hard currency.