Julienne hesitated before speaking. "Do you really want me to tell you about my experience in Tunisia?" she said, nervously touching her braided hair. "I don't know... I don't want to talk about this country anymore." The Ivorian woman, mother of four daughters, recently returned to Abidjan when she realized her life was "really in danger," as she puts it.  

Before that, she had been living in Tunisia for five years. Like the majority of Ivorian women in the North African country, she worked as a maid, before falling into domestic slavery. "My Tunisian employers were racist, but that's just how it was... I was used to it... Then, one day, everything got worse." In addition to being mistreated by her bosses, she suddenly became the victim of strangers who insulted her in the street, jostled her and threatened her.

"Being Black in Tunisia has become hell with Kaïs Saied [as president]," explains Julienne.

In July 2023, Tunisian President Kaïs Saied gave a virulent speech against migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, accusing them of being part of a plot to "change the composition of the demographic landscape in Tunisia." The president’s now infamous speech sparked an unprecedented wave of violence against the country's Black migrants, with arbitrary arrests, deportations to the desert, and forced evictions from their homes.

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Aboubacar's tale

Said’s name also came up in the account of Aboubacar, an Ivorian who spent nine months in Sfax, Tunisia, in the center of the country. He was "hiding in his apartment" before he requested repatriation from the World Organization for Migration (IOM). "You can be arrested while walking in the street, you can go to prison or worse, be deported to Libya [...] The Tunisian authorities hunt down people like us. I saw the police in Sfax breaking down doors, removing migrants from their homes and throwing them out on the street," explains Aboubacar.

Traumatized by these events, Aboubacar stopped working and even going outside. "I wanted to go home and nothing else. I couldn't work because I was terrified. I stayed locked up all day writing messages to my family."

Aboubacar and Julienne both returned in 2024 to Ivory Coast. The first with the help of the IOM, and the second through the Italian NGO AVSI which offers financial support for voluntary returns from certain third countries.

Read AlsoThousands of sub-Saharan migrants in Sfax dream about Europe

Psychological distress

Yet the much sought-after relief both were seeking never came. If their return gave them some respite from their existential worries, they both brought back the trauma they experienced from migration.   

When asked how she is holding up, Julienne evades the question. "I make attiéké now," she said, showing videos of herself grinding cassava in her business premises. "I concentrate on that to avoid thinking about anything else."

The psychological distress of former migrants is taken seriously at the Abidjan branch of the IOM. "Ivorians who return to the country have very complicated psychological profiles. Many have suffered abuse, been victims of trafficking, or were reduced to slavery," said Stéphane Sguéla, in charge of the reintegration program of the UN agency. "Some have been sold off as slaves. They are not well at all. This is why as soon as they return to Ivory Coast, we bring them into the 'mental health program' to take care of them, at least in the short term."

Seated next to his mother and holding her hand, Aboubacar smiled and insisted he was fine. But certain demons still pursue him. "I often talk about what happened there. I talk to my brothers, to my mother. I had companions who died in the Mediterranean. I had friends arrested and sent to Libya. I never heard from them again."

The French Office for Immigration and Integration in Abidjan has also voiced its alarm. "The profiles of the young people we support [via the voluntary return program] have changed over the past year," said Christophe Gontard, the director of OFII in Abidjan. "These are people who have had a terrible migration journey filled with violence and torture. Many have crossed the Mediterranean. They are 'shattered', and very fragile."

Read Also'The Cursed': Former migrants rejected by society on return to Ivory Coast

'I didn't get the welcome I wanted...'

To make matters worse, migrants who recently returned to Ivory Coast face the shame of having "failed," and are sometimes rejected by their families. While Aboubacar was able to count on his mother who welcomed him with open arms, many were not so lucky. Reine had the opposite experience. After eight years in Tunisia, the Ivorian mother of three children received only contempt from her family. "It wasn't easy. I was rejected, I didn't get the welcome I wanted..." Abandoned by her loved ones, Reine found help and housing through the AVSI association.

"This is not an isolated case. There are still many prejudices surrounding the failure of migration," said Denise Origlia, project manager at AVSI in Ivory Coast. "Migration is seen as an investment by the family and the community [many poor families contribute to paying smugglers for the journey]. When they return to the country without financial results, they can be judged severely."

Aboubacar said he felt "ashamed" to have returned empty-handed and penniless. Yet he hasn’t been idle since his return. He has set up his own online sales business by selling fashion accessories that he makes with beads. He manages to provide for his family. "I wanted to aim higher, I wanted more than this," he said.

His older brother, Ibrahim, understands Aboubacar's frustration. "He has talked about going to Europe ever since he was a child. Of course, it's hard for him," he said. "He has always been fascinated by the 'bingustes' [the Ivorians who made their fortune in France and occasionally return to Ivory Coast]. Even as a child, he watched them drive down the street in their big cars, going to their beautiful houses. He wanted to become like them."

Aboubacar agreed, his face sad. "I missed my only chance to go to France," he said. He will never become a binguste. "It was my dream. I would have loved to return to my country like them. I would have liked being proud of myself."