In Tunisia, since the fall, more and more sub-Saharan migrants have been victims of kidnapping and torture by criminal groups made up of sub-Saharans and Tunisians. In the general climate of hostility towards black migrants in the country, very few dare to file complaints.
“Today I don’t recognize my body. I suffered so much that I hardly walk.” On the phone, Vincent* speaks in a weakened but determined voice. This 37-year-old Cameroonian was kidnapped by sub-Saharans in early March from the apartment where he lived with a friend in Sfax, in east-central Tunisia.
In the middle of the night, four people broke in demanding money. “They were all Cameroonians, I recognized them by their accent,” remembers Vincent. Disappointed that they did not find any money in the apartment, the attackers wounded Vincent with a bat and a knife, then threw him into a taxi, heading for an area near Sfax airport.
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Vincent is then locked in an isolated house, where another man is already. “He was also Cameroonian, he was kidnapped before me and he was already tortured.” But the two men are quickly separated and unable to communicate during their detention.
7,000 euros will be released
In the house, about ten men – all Cameroonians, according to Vincent – were spreading terror. Upon arrival, he said they stripped him naked, tied him up and beat him. “I was tied up for seven days […] They burned me with melted plastic and shocked me with a cable stuck in my ear. The kidnappers made a video call to my family while they were beating me. They asked for 4.7 million CFA francs (about 7,000 euros) in exchange for my release,” explains the Cameroonian.
After a few days, Vincent’s family sent part of the requested sum and one of his tormentors – “who had influence over others” – decided to move him. “He wanted to keep me for himself to take the lion’s share in case my family sent more money,” the Cameroonian said.
In the new house where he is confined, he eventually spots a window that can be opened. “I went to the railway that I used to go to Tunis. I walked for two days before I found someone who agreed to drop me off in Hammamet and from there I went to Tunisia,” he explains.
In Sfax, the migration economy
Abductions of migrants from sub-Saharan countries have increased in Tunisia since November. At issue: Tunisia’s political context, where black migrants have been openly targeted since President Kaïs Saïed’s anti-migrant speech in February 2023. “Exiles have become easy targets because they have no access to justice and no family in the country,” explains a Tunisian researcher with whom InfoMigrants spoke and who wishes to remain anonymous.
In Sfax, migrant smuggling is seen as an easy way to make money. The city has long been the starting point for migrants to Italy and a whole business is organized around it. “But now we see another aspect of this economy: Tunisians work with sub-Saharan Africans to run this business of kidnapping for ransom,” the researcher explains.
“So that the family can hear the cry”
Unlike Vincent, who was arrested at home, most of the migrants were kidnapped near the Algerian border, after Tunisian authorities forced them into the area – since last summer, thousands of migrants have been arrested in Sfax or at sea and sent into the desert. Kidnappings mostly occur when exiles try to return to Sfax.
Most then pay Tunisian drivers to transport them. The latter then resell them to Sub-Saharans who have been living in the city for several years. “They have been there for a long time so they know Tunisian taxis very well,” explains Abdoulaye*, an 18-year-old Guinean kidnapped in early January and sent to a shelter in Sfax.
The young man describes the same violence that Vincent suffered. “Omičari – Ivorians – took off all my clothes […]. Then they beat me and gave me electric shocks on my body and face. You are in so much pain that you cannot speak,” Abdoulaye recalls.
“Then they gave me a phone to call my family. And when we talk to our loved ones, they torture us for the family to hear the moans. My family paid. A must if you don’t want to lose your life […] Even if they don’t have money, our relatives go into debt, sell things so that we can be freed.” Abdoulaye’s relatives had to pay 800 euros to traffickers in exchange for his freedom.
“A way to stigmatize migrants”
What are the Tunisian authorities doing about this new form of crime targeting migrants? Police say they lack direct testimony through filing lawsuits to combat these Tunisian sub-Saharan networks. But in the current anti-immigrant context in Tunisia, and while most exiles are in an irregular situation, very few people dare to open the doors of police stations.
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“The authorities have not established means for families to testify and warn victims and their families that they will be protected […] as victims of human trafficking,” complains Romdhane Ben Amor, Communications Officer of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES).
The official also doubts the desire of the Tunisian authorities to put an end to the phenomenon of migrant abductions. According to him, they could benefit from it. “They always say they don’t have enough information [sur les réseaux tuniso-subsahariens], but it is also a way to stigmatize migrants, he condemns. This allows them to say that exiles are connected to crimes and even create kidnapping networks.”
*The names of all interviewed deportees have been changed
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