The families of a group of about 40 missing Tunisian migrants continued their weekly protest in the Tunisian capital Tunis on Tuesday (February 6). Their relatives went missing in January during an attempt to reach Italy via the Mediterranean.
"We still have no information about them," Fethi Ben Farhat, whose 17-year-old nephew Malek is one of those missing, told the French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP).
Malek is one of about 40 migrants, many of them young, who appear to have disappeared at sea around January 11. At the time, the Italian, Tunisian and Maltese authorities, as well as Frontex vessels, were deployed in a search for the missing boat after their relatives, who had lost contact with them once at sea, alerted the Tunisian National Guard.
The Tunisian National Guard said they had deployed "significant resources" in an attempt to locate their boat.
On February 6, the organization Alarm Phone, which monitors journeys towards Europe, alerted authorities to yet another boat that was in trouble after having departed Tunisia. According to the organization, neither the Tunisian nor the Maltese authorities had claimed responsibility for the estimated 105 people on board.
The families have been protesting every week since the migrants' disappearance.
Search for a better future
According to AFP, Malek dropped out of high school and abandoned an apprenticeship as a mechanic in hopes of joining his older brother who made it to Italy four months ago.
"Young people cannot even consider learning a trade or working here," Ben Farhat told AFP. "They think it’s useless. All they think about is migration, especially when they see photos on social media of their friends [who already made the crossing]."
Youth unemployment stands at around 38% in Tunisia, and the economy is at a near standstill, with just 1.2% growth, according to 2023 data from the World Bank. In the last few years, both the economic and political situation have worsened in the country, and more and more young Tunisians see Europe as the only way out.
Economic and political factors fueling migration
In 2023, Tunisia bypassed Libya to become the most frequent departure point for migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa. According to Italian Interior Ministry data, Tunisians also formed the second greatest group of nationals arriving in Italy, after citizens of Guinea.
The Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES) explained that both economic factors, as well as the tightening of visa restrictions to countries in Europe, were prompting the drive toward clandestine migration.
A spokesperson for FTDES, Romdhane Ben Amor, told AFP, "economic and social factors …push migrants out of their countries of origin, added to climate conditions and political instability." Ben Amor said that things in Tunisia had worsened since President Kais Saied dissolved the country's parliament on July 25, 2021.
Some of the families taking part in the protest also expressed anger toward the smugglers who sell these passages to young would-be migrants.
"He worked the Sfax-Italy route as if it were a highway," said another woman present at the protest. Fatma Jlail, 37, is still hoping to hear news of her younger brother. According to her, the smuggler "brainwashed teenagers who wanted to leave due to the situation of our country."
'Where are our children? Who should be held responsible?'
Like many of the other families present, Jlail had questions which so far have not been answered: "Where are our children? Who should be held responsible?"
Similar questions were also asked about 10 days after the boat went missing by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE). They posted a series of questions on X, including: "How many more boats should go missing for EU politicians to act?" and "Why not ensure safe routes to avoid such tragedies?"
For the last four years, Tunisia has also been experiencing drought. According to a report from AFP in December last year, the drought has caused the country’s "worst water scarcity in years."
Drought and climate change
One woman living in a rural area around 180 kilometers southwest of the capital Tunis told the news agency she felt her life was "like the living dead…forgotten by everyone." Previously, the area in which she lived was known for its fertility, with acres of wheat fields and pine trees.
Now, the families who have stayed complain they have "no roads, no water, no aid, no decent housing, and we own nothing." Many have to walk an hour or more to the closest water source.
The World Bank has predicted that by 2030, absolute water scarcity will fall below the threshold of 500 cubic meters yearly per person across the entire Middle East and North Africa region.
In spring 2023, Tunisia introduced water rationing. But the scarcity doesn’t just impact household use -- it also influences farming and livestock rearing. Some farmers have been forced to sell all or many of their animals because they were unable to keep them alive.
The crisis on the countryside has pushed many to move to bigger cities or seek a future in Europe. According to FTDES, about 300,000 of Tunisia’s 12 million people have no access to drinking water in their homes.
One woman living in a rural area told AFP: "People are either unemployed or eaten by fish in the sea," referring to those who take the dangerous route across the Mediterranean.
UN migration agency IOM's Missing Migrants project has counted at least 128 people who died in the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year. 88 of those missing were lost on the central Mediterranean route between the coasts of North Africa and Italy, and to a lesser extent, Spain.
With AFP