Tunisia is developing into the hub for refugee flows to Europe. As a result, shocking discoveries are being made more and more frequently off the coast.
More and more migrants are trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean – boats often capsize and many people die, as happened last week. The extent of the misery and desperation of those who embark on the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean can also be seen on the coasts of Tunisia.
The Tunisian fisherman Oussame Dabbebi reported in an interview with the BBC: “Instead of fishing, I sometimes find corpses.” He was scared the first time, but gradually got used to it. “After a while it doesn’t make any difference whether I’m pulling a fish or a corpse out of my net,” says Dabbebi. The 30-year-old fisherman found 15 bodies of migrants in his nets in three days, he told the BBC. Once the corpse of a baby was among them: “How can a baby be responsible for anything? I cried.”
Dabbebi has been fishing in the waters near Tunisia’s second largest city, Sfax, since he was ten years old. At that time there were many more fish, but most of them sold their boats to gangs of people smugglers for a lot of money. They also offered him a lot of money for his fishing boat, the fisherman said. “Many times smugglers have offered me unbelievable sums of money for my boat. I have always declined because if they use my boat and someone drowns, I would never forgive myself.”
The “Disaster Chamber”
Since 2014, more than 27,000 people have died across the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe. This also poses great challenges for the local people, said Dabbebi. The director of the regional health authority of Sfax, Hatem Cherif, criticized the lack of infrastructure and resources to deal with all deaths.
“The capacity of the hospital’s morgue is designed for a maximum of 35 to 40 bodies,” he told the BBC. Under normal circumstances that is enough, but with this influx of dead bodies, which continues to increase, the number of bodies that can be accommodated is far exceeded. Only recently, around 250 deceased were brought to the morgue, most of whom were stored one on top of the other in a refrigerated adjoining room called the “disaster chamber”.
In addition, many of the dead could not be identified, which is why Dr. Cherif and his colleagues organized DNA testing. In this way, people could determine whether their relatives were buried here. To do this, they would have to have their own DNA checked for matches, Cherif told the BBC.
Tunisia as a new starting point for refugee flows
According to the UN refugee agency, around 24,000 people left Tunisia for Europe between January and April this year. Today, Tunisia is considered the hub for migrants who want to go to Europe – before that it was Libya. However, unstable political conditions and violence against refugees have led to more and more migrants from Tunisia heading for Europe.
Just last week, a fishing boat with up to 700 migrants on board sank in international waters off Greece. He came from Libya and had Italy as his destination. Most of the migrants drowned.
At least since the asylum compromise of the EU interior ministers, top politicians and local officials have been trying to stem the flow of migrants in the same way. Here you can read more about it.
