Thousands of people demonstrated on Tuesday (October 18th) in Zarzis, a town in southeastern Tunisia paralyzed by a general strike to demand an intensification of the search for the bodies of Tunisian migrants who disappeared at sea a month ago, according to a correspondent from the AFP. Civil servants and traders in this coastal town of around 75,000 inhabitants observed a general strike at the call of a local union demanding an investigation into the sinking and the procedures for the search and burial of the remains found.
From 3,000 to 4,000 demonstrators, including the families of 12 missing migrants, gathered on the main avenue of Zarzis, according to observers. Some brandished photos of the disappeared and banners denouncing a “state crime“, calling to unveil”the truth“.
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“All the truth”
A makeshift boat that left Zarzis with 18 Tunisian migrants on board disappeared during the night of September 20 to 21. Subsequently, eight bodies, including several Tunisians, were found on October 10 by fishermen. Local authorities mistakenly buried four Tunisian migrants in a private cemetery, “The African Garden“, usually reserved for the bodies of sub-Saharan migrants fished out in the region, which angered the families.
After their protests, President Kais Saied on Monday ordered the Ministry of Justice to open an investigation “so that Tunisians know the whole truth and that those responsible for these tragedies face the consequences of their negligence“. From spring to autumn, due to the favorable weather, the rate of departures of migrants from Tunisia and neighboring Libya to Italy accelerates, sometimes ending in drownings.
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Faced with migratory pressure, the Tunisian authorities are struggling to intercept or rescue migrants due, they say, to a lack of resources. The Tunisian League for Human Rights denounced “the inability of the authorities to mobilize the means necessary to carry out rescue and search operations with speed“.
Tunisia is going through a serious politico-economic crisis and now has four million poor people, out of a population of nearly 12 million. More than 22,500 migrants — Tunisians, sub-Saharans and other nationalities — have been intercepted off the Tunisian coast since the start of the year, according to official data.