Tunisian Migrants Open Tensions in Europe
By ANGELA GIUFFRIDA
Published: April 6, 2011
MENTON, FRANCE — The train from Ventimiglia in Italy takes only a few minutes to crawl across the frontier into Menton Garavan, the first stop in France along the Côte d’Azur railroad. But it was enough time to dash the dreams of four young migrants.
Awaiting their arrival, a half dozen police officers swiftly took them off the train — part of France’s efforts to make its border impenetrable to the thousands of migrants, mostly Tunisian right now, who have slowly made their way up from the southern Italian island of Lampedusa off Sicily since a wave of rebellion began sweeping across North Africa in January.
President Nicolas Sarkozy early in his term of office championed a vision of a “Union for the Mediterranean,” a grouping of the countries that border the sea. Last month he took a lead in pulling more reluctant Western powers into the military intervention in Libya.
But unpopular at home, and seeking to attract far-right nationalist voters with tough anti-immigrant policies before the presidential election next year, Mr. Sarkozy has set a clear limit to his ideas of Mediterranean solidarity, and has infuriated his southern neighbor, Italy, by keeping the border closed to the migrants fleeing political and economic turmoil in North Africa.
Between Feb. 23 and March 28, 2,800 Tunisian migrants were intercepted in France and 1,700 were expelled, most of them to Italy, Interior Minister Claude Guéant told the French National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, on Tuesday.
In Ventimiglia, a small town popular for its Friday street market, migrants huddle in groups outside the train station, in the park or on the beach, contemplating their attempt to enter France. Police officers quietly patrol the station, where the waiting rooms and toilets are now left open at night at the request of the local authorities.
A center for migrants has been set up on the outskirts of the town, but with the number arriving each day continuing to swell, space is limited and food is in short supply.
Giuseppe Fama, president of ARCI, an anti-racism association based farther down the coast in Imperia, organized a demonstration outside the station in support of the migrants and against the war in Libya. He said the migrant men were sleeping outdoors most nights, “under cardboard boxes near the station or in the park.”
Imed Seroual is one of them. The 27-year-old Tunisian said he had barely slept in five days. Despite it all, he was upbeat and spoke favorably of the Italians.
“There’s an Italian man who comes to the station every day and gives food to everyone,” said Mr. Seroual, who passed through migrant centers in Lampedusa, Crotone and Milan on his way to Ventimiglia. “I also met an Italian in Milan who paid for my meal in a restaurant. And when I was in Lampedusa, one woman gave me €20,” about $28.
Still, like his counterparts who have fled instability in Tunisia, Italy is not where he wants to stay. “Life in Italy seems harder than in France, there are not as many jobs,” he said. France may also be an easier place for Tunisians to settle because they speak French and many have relatives in the country.
It is the search for work and the dream of a better life that is driving young Tunisians to flee their homeland, despite the toppling of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January. Although Tunisians are reported to be proud of inciting the revolutions sweeping other Arab countries, most are desperate to leave, Mr. Seroual said.
An estimated 20,000 migrants from North Africa have arrived in Italy since January. Although most of them come from Tunisia, there also are Egyptians and workers from other countries who have fled Libya. Many paid up to $1,450 for the often treacherous crossing to Lampedusa. Fortunately, Mr. Seroual had some savings from his job as a waiter to help pay for his crossing. “At the moment, it is calm in Tunisia, but people are doing unbelievable things,” he said, referring to his distrust of the police there. “You have no solution: When these things happen you have to move.”
Mr. Seroual left behind his parents and sisters and hopes to find work in Paris. “France is a country in which you can live normally and have a calm life,” he said. “There’s freedom and democracy.”
“It doesn’t matter what job I do, so long as it’s an honorable job,” he added. “I just want to earn a good living and live a normal life. I want a wife, home and children, normal things like my parents had.”
Another 27-year-old from Sfax, who asked not to be named, said the rebellion had brought chaos to Tunisia. “There is no work, no president,” he said.
“The economy is dead and will take time to recover,” he added. “Europe must help Tunisians. It is closely tied with us. Stability in Tunisia would help the economy here.”
Karim Bouachacha, 29, who worked at a hotel in Tunisia, is trying to reach a brother who lives in Belgium. “We need to work,” he said. “This is important for us and our families. We can’t even get to Belgium or Germany or anywhere else. Why doesn’t France help us?”
“Italy can’t take all these people,” he added. “Even the Italians can’t find jobs. Yes, it’s difficult in France, too, but it seems better than here.”
But getting to their destination will be tougher than these migrants ever imagined, with tensions between France and Italy growing by the day. President Silvio Berlusconi referred to the influx as a “human tsunami” and Italy has asked the European Union for €100 million to pay the costs of housing or repatriating the migrants.
Stefania Craxi, Italy’s under secretary for foreign affairs, said last week that France was being irresponsible in refusing to assume responsibility for some of the migrants and urged it to “show its solidarity and generosity in relations between European Union member countries.”
Cecilia Malmström, the E.U. immigration commissioner, also said last week that the “French authorities cannot send them back to Italy,” as the dispute intensifies over how to implement the Schengen treaty, which governs the borderless areas of Europe.
The migrants are just as angry. A Tunisian at the ARCI demonstration said: “We’re not terrorists. We’re just here to find work. There is misery in Tunisia. Stop this fortress Europe.”
Mr. Fama of ARCI said that “there should be solidarity” among the nations of Europe and that “they shouldn’t be stopping them coming in.”
He added: “The problem is with European policy as a whole. This situation is delicate and needs to be handled very carefully.”
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