Tunisia Facing Unprecedented Migration Crisis

Migrants navigate on a metal boat as they are spotted by Tunisian coast guards at sea during their attempt to cross to Italy, off Sfax, Tunisia April 27, 2023. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui
Migrants navigate on a metal boat as they are spotted by Tunisian coast guards at sea during their attempt to cross to Italy, off Sfax, Tunisia April 27, 2023. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui
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Tunisia Facing Unprecedented Migration Crisis

Migrants navigate on a metal boat as they are spotted by Tunisian coast guards at sea during their attempt to cross to Italy, off Sfax, Tunisia April 27, 2023. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui
Migrants navigate on a metal boat as they are spotted by Tunisian coast guards at sea during their attempt to cross to Italy, off Sfax, Tunisia April 27, 2023. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui

Bodies of drowned migrants wash up most days on Tunisian beaches, lie unclaimed in hospital corridors and fill morgues, evidence of a surge in people seeking to cross the Mediterranean that has been accelerated by a government crackdown.

Coastguard patrols return to the port of Sfax crammed with migrants stopped at sea in flimsy, overcrowded boats from making the perilous voyage to what they hope will be a better life in Europe.

The number of migrants embarking upon the Mediterranean has risen overall, but the number leaving Tunisia has exploded, with more caught by coastguard patrols than in any previous year, senior National Guard official Houssem Eddine Jebabli said.

The Coastguard told Reuters it has stopped 17,000 people at sea in the first four months of 2023, compared to 3,000 in the same period of 2022.

The numbers spiked after a crackdown on migrants from Sub-Saharan African countries in February that President Kais Saied announced using language the African Union condemned as racialized. Many migrants reported suffering racist attacks.

"Let us go! Your president expelled us but now you are stopping us leaving," shouted a man from the Ivory Coast, who gave his name as Ibrahim, taken aboard a Coastguard ship with his wife and two infant children after they were stopped at sea.

"We were evicted from our home, people threw stones at our house," he said, explaining why they had to leave Tunisia. His comments were echoed by other African migrants Reuters met after their boats were intercepted.

Within minutes of Reuters boarding Coastguard Ship 3505 in Sfax, the captain registered a likely migrant boat on the radar on a course for Italy's Lampedusa island, the main migrant destination.

Over the following hours, Reuters watched the Coastguard stop five boats and track four others it did not have time to chase.

As the crammed boats emerged in the darkness, some with children on board, some migrants begged to be left to continue their voyage. Others tried to resist or evade capture.

On one boat, Reuters saw migrants throwing metal bars at the Coastguard, fighting them with sticks and threatening to throw themselves into the sea. On another, the Coastguard disabled the engine by smashing it with poles.

The tactic of smashing engines has been criticized by migrant rights groups who say some boats have been left rudderless at sea, prey to the waves and in danger of sinking.

Jebabli, the National Guard official, denied imperiling migrants and said Coastguards were increasingly threatened at sea when stopping migrant boats.

Back on the main ship, the captain fired a weapon into the air trying to quell a protest by 200 migrants on board as many angrily demanded to be allowed to go on to Italy.

Some threw confiscated boat engines at the 10 Coastguards on board. Others threatened to set themselves on fire. One man jumped into the sea and was hauled out.

The cost of an illicit voyage is falling as migrants rely less on Tunisian fishing boats and buy their own metal craft made cheaply and meant for only a single journey.

Passage to Italy was previously 5,000 dinars ($1,600) but is now only 1,000 dinars, a police official said, with migrants evenly splitting the cost of the boat and engine.

It costs only 2,000 dinars to make a metal boat that can be sold for 20,000 and ever more people near the coast are doing so, a resident of Sfax's Jebiniana district said, showing Reuters houses that had recently been used for the purpose.

Migrants Reuters interviewed coming off the Coastguard boats said they would try to cross again soon.

But on a stretch of Sfax coastline Reuters saw five bodies that had washed up, one a young boy in jeans and a white T-shirt. The Coastguard recovered four others nearby.

The main city hospital was storing 200 bodies, most outside the small morgue lying stacked in bags on the corridor floors.

Patients complain of the terrible smell. "We cannot bear it anymore," said a nurse.

Regional health chief Hatem Cherif said authorities would build a new cemetery for migrants. "We bury dozens every day," he said.



What is Hezbollah, the Lebanese Group under Pressure to Disarm?

A Hezbollah supporter holds up a Hezbollah flag in front of the headquarters of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, July 26, 2025, during a demonstration against the Israeli war and what they say is the starvation of civilians in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A Hezbollah supporter holds up a Hezbollah flag in front of the headquarters of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, July 26, 2025, during a demonstration against the Israeli war and what they say is the starvation of civilians in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
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What is Hezbollah, the Lebanese Group under Pressure to Disarm?

A Hezbollah supporter holds up a Hezbollah flag in front of the headquarters of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, July 26, 2025, during a demonstration against the Israeli war and what they say is the starvation of civilians in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A Hezbollah supporter holds up a Hezbollah flag in front of the headquarters of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, July 26, 2025, during a demonstration against the Israeli war and what they say is the starvation of civilians in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

The Lebanese government is expected to discuss Hezbollah's disarmament on Tuesday, facing pressure from the United States to make progress as Israel presses attacks on the Iran-backed group.

While President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam aim to establish a state monopoly on arms, seeing this as vital to stabilizing Lebanon, Hezbollah has rejected demands for its disarmament, saying such calls serve Israel.

WHAT ARE HEZBOLLAH'S ORIGINS?

Iran's Revolutionary Guards founded Hezbollah in 1982 during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, part of Tehran's effort to export its 1979 Iranian Revolution and fight Israeli forces that had invaded Lebanon in 1982.

HOW DID IT BECOME SO POWERFUL?

While other groups disarmed after Lebanon's civil war, Hezbollah kept its weapons to fight Israeli forces occupying the predominantly Shi'ite Muslim south. It kept its weapons after Israel withdrew in 2000.

In 2006, during a five-week war, it fired thousands of rockets into Israel. The war erupted after Hezbollah crossed into Israel, kidnapping two soldiers and killing others.

Hezbollah's arsenal grew after 2006. The US Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook said it was estimated to have as many as 150,000 rockets and missiles in 2020 and in 2022 was estimated to have 45,000 fighters.

Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed by Israel in 2024, said the group had 100,000 fighters.

HOW DID IT GET INVOLVED IN THE GAZA WAR?

After the 2006 war, Hezbollah became involved in conflicts outside Lebanon. It sent fighters to Syria to help Bashar al-Assad fight opposition factions, aided Iran-backed Shi'ite militias in Iraq, and supported the Houthis of Yemen, though Hezbollah has never confirmed this.

It also deepened ties with Palestinian militant group Hamas. Hezbollah became the spearhead of the Iran-backed "Axis of Resistance".

After Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah opened fire on Israeli positions in the frontier region, declaring solidarity with the Palestinians.

Hezbollah and Israel traded fire for almost a year until September 2024, when Israel detonated thousands of booby-trapped pagers used by Hezbollah members, and stepped up airstrikes, killing Nasrallah and other commanders.

Israel also sent troops into Lebanon's south.

HOW BADLY HIT WAS HEZBOLLAH?

In addition to killing much of Hezbollah's command, Israel killed thousands of fighters and destroyed much of its arsenal.

The toppling of Assad in Syria in December 2024, choked Hezbollah's main supply route from Iran and tilted the regional power balance against it.

A US-backed ceasefire agreed in November 2024 required Hezbollah's disarmament beginning in areas south of the Litani River, the area adjacent to Israel.

Hezbollah says the deal only applies to that region and that it has handed over weapons to Lebanese troops in that area. Israeli forces continue to occupy five hilltops in the south and to carry out airstrikes on Hezbollah fighters and arms depots.

WHAT IS HEZBOLLAH'S ROLE IN LEBANON?

Hezbollah long had a decisive say over state affairs but was unable to get its way over the formation of the 2025 post-war government, which adopted a policy of establishing a monopoly on arms.

Lebanese have been at odds over Hezbollah's arms for decades - opponents accuse it of dragging Lebanon into wars, supporters see its weapons as key to defending the country.

In 2008, Hezbollah fighters took over parts of Beirut in an armed conflict sparked by the government's vow to take action against the group's military communications network.

A UN-backed court convicted three Hezbollah members in absentia over the assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, a Sunni Muslim politician killed in 2005 by a truck bomb in Beirut, along with 21 other people. Hezbollah has denied any role.

Hezbollah has solid backing among Shi'ites. The group has been represented in governments, either by Hezbollah politicians serving as ministers or through its approval of candidates for cabinet portfolios reserved for Shi'ites.

It runs its own social services. Together with its ally, Amal, it dominated local elections in May in Shi'ite areas. The groups hold all seats reserved for Shi'ites in parliament.

TERRORISM DESIGNATIONS

The United States holds Hezbollah responsible for suicide bombings in 1983 that destroyed the US Marine headquarters in Beirut, killing 241 service personnel, and a French barracks, killing 58 French paratroopers. It also blames Hezbollah for a suicide attack on the US Embassy in Beirut in 1983.

Lebanese officials and Western intelligence agencies have said groups linked to Hezbollah kidnapped Westerners in Lebanon in the 1980s. Referring to those attacks and hostage-taking, Nasrallah said in a 2022 interview they were carried out by small groups not linked to Hezbollah.

Western governments, including the United States, and Gulf Arab states, deem Hezbollah a terrorist group. Some, notably the European Union, have designated its military wing a terrorist group, drawing what critics say is an artificial distinction with its political wing.

Argentina blames Hezbollah and Iran for the bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in which 85 people died in 1994 and for an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 that killed 29 people. Hezbollah and Iran deny any responsibility.