The number of deaths in the Mediterranean Sea in 2023 will soon surpass any year since 2015, the height of the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Many sub-Saharan African migrants choose to transit through Sfax, Tunisia, due to its proximity to Europe.
Recent actions rooted in anti-migration and racial sentiments have triggered a series of
crackdowns on Black migrants in Sfax. As a result, many migrants faced arrests or forced relocations from the urban core to remote rural areas.
Reports indicate that Tunisian security forces expelled or relocated approximately 2,000 sub-Saharan Africans to desert regions along the borders of Libya and Algeria.
Sfax attracts migrants who want to make the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean, often on flimsy and unsafe makeshift rafts.
Fraser Byers, a reporting intern at Circle of Blue, recounted an incident involving the M.V. Geo Barents. In August, the vessel intercepted radio transmissions hinting at the location of a drifting migrant boat. Seabird, an NGO-operated aircraft, was dispatched to confirm the raft’s existence.
The migrant raft, composed of several poorly welded sheets of metal, was found drifting northward, passing by the Tunisian nationalized gas platform. Seabird coordinated the deployment of MSF RHIBs (smaller rescue boats) to the scene, where they discovered 47 migrants onboard, including women and unaccompanied minors. These individuals endured six days at sea due to an engine failure, rendering them weak and vulnerable.
Earlier that day, three migrants jumped overboard in a desperate bid to collect a floating container of water, becoming separated from the migrant raft. A search and rescue operation was launched, scouring the waters in an attempt to locate the missing trio. While two were eventually recovered, they were in critical condition. The first man who leaped from the boat in pursuit of the water container was never found.
Many will continue to attempt the journey across the Mediterranean while drivers of migration such as climate change and conflict worsen.