This time, it’s over. “The trip is broken,” they say. Your minds are empty, and also your pockets. For these Senegalese migrants, ivory or Sierra Leone, the beaches near El Amra, near the city of Sfax in the center of the eastern Tunisia, have become the end of their “adventure.” Europe, his last desire, remains an elusive dream. Still inaccessible.
Another way arises for them, to return home. An idea that was once unimaginable now whispers. What else do you have to do? Reaching the Italian Island of Lampedusa from the beaches of Chebba or Salakta has become almost impossible. Since January 1, only 432 migrants have achieved it, aboard the improvised ships, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). There were around 18,000 dead the same period two years ago.
This dramatic fall in clandestine crosses is explained by the agreement signed in the summer of 2023 between Tunisia and the European Union (EU). With 260 million euros in help to strengthen, among other things, the Tunisian Coast Guard, the Maritime Route is now sealed. “We are stuck,” said Fatoumata Camara, a 27 -year -old Guinean woman, while trying to warm her daughter Maryam three months old in her chest early at night.
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