Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed caused a stir at home and abroad by implying on Tuesday 21 February that the arrival of sub-Saharan migrants was part of a plot to weaken Arab-Islamic identity. in Tunisia. “There is a criminal plan to change the composition of the demographic landscape in Tunisia and some individuals have received large sums of money to give residence to sub-Saharan migrants,” said the head of state, quoted in a press release. the Presidency of the Republic.
During a national security council convened on the subject, Mr. Saïed spoke of “hordes of illegal migrants” whose presence in Tunisia would, according to him, be a source of “violence, crimes and unacceptable acts”. Insisting on “the need to quickly end” this immigration, he equated it with “a desire to make Tunisia only a country of Africa and not a member of the Arab and Islamic world”, a rhetoric close to the “great replacement” theory championed by the far right in France and other Western countries. Eric Zemmour, the president of the French Reconquest party, also welcomed in a tweet published Wednesday morning that “the Maghreb countries themselves are starting to sound the alarm in the face of the migratory surge”.
“Kaïs Saïed finally appropriates a far-right discourse on migration that he would never have tolerated if it had been pronounced in Europe on the irregular migration of Tunisians, comments anthropologist Kenza Ben Azouz, specialist in racism in Tunisia. By scapegoating the sub-Saharan community without tackling the migration issue in depth, it is anchored in a populist and opportunist logic. »
300 arrests in one week
Tunisia has between 30,000 and 50,000 sub-Saharan migrants, according to local NGOs. A population that provides “cheap and consuming labor that everyone benefits from, and often even abuses. Their presence and their irregular work on the territory were until now known and tolerated by the Tunisian State although it has always been illegal”, underlines Kenza Ben Azouz.
Many of them, however, do not stay in the Maghreb. Last year, half of the 22,000 migrants who arrived illegally in Europe (especially in Italy) from Tunisia were of sub-Saharan origin. Departures motivated by the economic situation of the country, the complexity of regularization procedures, but also ill-treatment.
On February 16, several Tunisian human rights associations stepped up to denounce the arrest, in a single week, of 300 migrants. “They were arrested following a racial identity check or even following their appearance in court in support of their loved ones,” the statement said.
In recent weeks, racist speech and hate speech have taken on a new dimension, encouraged by the rise of the Tunisian Nationalist Party, a formation that recently appeared on the Internet and which calls for the expulsion of sub-Saharan migrants via an online petition. The movement, which had only a few thousand subscribers on its Facebook page at the beginning of January, now has more than 50,000. And these ideas seem to be infusing.
Fatma Mseddi, a recently elected deputy, published on Tuesday the photo of a black man presented ironically as “the future governor of Sfax”, in reference to the eastern city where the largest migrant community is concentrated. A site also disseminated the fanciful figure of 1.2 million Sub-Saharans present in Tunisia, without verifying or sourcing this information. The Arabic-language newspaper Le Temps also devoted two front pages in February to the massive presence of these foreigners in Tunisia.
“Some eat cats”
The words of Kaïs Saïed only amplified this campaign. The publication of the press release from the presidency on Facebook sparked a flood of comments. Some indignant at the words of the Head of State, others on the contrary welcoming his initiative: “Thank you for realizing what is happening, the number of crimes is appalling”, writes one of them. “Mr. President, some [migrants] eat cats,” said another. Faced with this wave of hatred, many Internet users have also shown their solidarity with Sub-Saharans by changing their profile picture on social networks and denouncing the prevailing racism.
“I can’t believe this kind of talk, from a president, is real. There is a climate of fear that is setting in, ”says L., a migrant with his residence card, who has been living in Sfax for eight years. A crèche for sub-Saharan children in Tunis, which had opened illegally to house migrant children while they work, has closed its doors. “I’m too afraid of abuse on children or aggression against us,” says his manager.
“These comments give legitimacy to anyone who would like to attack a black person in the street, deplores Saadia Mosbah, president of the Mnemty association, which fights against racism. Even me, as a black Tunisian, I am now threatened if I go out in the street, since people don’t know the difference anyway. »
Fear has also won over sub-Saharan students who are now afraid to leave their homes. “We received two panicked emails and a phone call,” confirms Farah Hached, vice-president of Mahmoud El Materi University in Tunis. Students say they don’t feel safe and beg us to find a solution,” she said. The university is considering contacting the ministries “so that there is at least a reassuring speech from the authorities,” she explains. For its part, the Association of African Students and Trainees in Tunisia (Aesat) issued a statement on February 17, calling on targeted students to be “vigilant” and to travel “permanently” with their residence permit.