Following brutal confrontations between irregular migrants from sub-saharan Africa and residents of Tunisian town Sfax on Monday, the Tunisian justice system opened an investigation to identify involved parties, and estimate the ensuing damage.
The confrontations, carried out using stone and other tools, instigated violent encounters and triggered xenophobic sentiments among residents of the Rabd district.
Spokesman for the Sfax prosecutor’s office Faouzi Masmoudi told AFP that “vehicles and homes were damaged during the clashes, but no casualties are caused.’’
A thorough investigation has been launched to identify those responsible and determine their motives that provoked such violence, he added.
According to local media, the police were forced to use tear gas to end the clashes.
Because of its strategic location, Sfax , situated in east-central Tunisia, is the starting point for a large number of irregular crossings and irregular operations to Italy.
The locals regularly express concerns about the presence of irregular Sub-Saharan migrants in the city and ask for their immediate departure.
Constant instances of verbal and physical are reported to break out between the residents and migrants in the popular neighbourhoods of the city.
Tension between the two parties increased to a remarkable degree following the chauvinistic speech of Kais Saied on February 21 in which the president depicted the migrants as a threat to the very identity of the country.
In an official statement, the head of state said that sub saharan migrants are part of a ‘criminal plan to change the composition of the demographic landscape’ of the country, fomenting an unceasing controversy at home and abroad.
Several local and international NGOs denounced the hate speech of Saed and accused the president of inciting hateful and violent behaviours against the migrants.
“Kais Saied has finally appropriated a far-right narrative on migration that he would never have tolerated if it had been expressed in Europe on the irregular migration of Tunisians,” commented anthropologist Kenza Ben Azouz, a specialist in racism in Tunisia.
“By scapegoating the sub-Saharan community without fundamentally addressing the migration issue, he anchors himself in a populist and opportunistic logic.”
A 30-year-old Beninese migrant was killed during a deadly attack executed by a group of young Tunisians in a popular neighbourhood in Sfax at the end of May. Most Sub-Saharan migrants see Tunisia as a transit station to reach Italian territories.
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