Omar*, 33-year-old Gambian

"I first arrived in Tunisia in 2023. And what I can say is that I've experienced a lot in this country. A lot of trauma. I've been arrested, expelled, deported, imprisoned, sold, extorted, and many other things.

My first arrest by the Tunisians was during my first attempt to cross the Mediterranean. We were on board a small boat, almost in international waters, when the coast guard caught us. They brought us back to land, and then we were put on a bus heading to Gafsa.

There's a police station there. We were locked up at the station for several weeks, then sent to the desert, to the border with Algeria. They left us there, without water or food. They even took our belongings. The Tunisian police told us that if we came back, they would shoot us.

For two years, the authorities have been conducting massive arrest campaigns and detaining Black people living in Tunisia, particularly in the Sfax region. Thousands of sub-Saharan Africans have been sent to the desert, to the border with Libya or Algeria. Abandoned in the middle of nowhere, the migrants take days to return to east-central Tunisia.

We survived by asking locals for water, but Tunisia is not a rich country, so people gave us what they could. Then finally, after days of walking, we reached Sfax. There, we reached a camp in the olive groves.

We went to the km19 camp. But one day, the police arrived and destroyed and burned everything we had: our shelter, our belongings, etc. The police destroyed all our supplies, Water bottles and cooking equipment.

After being arrested again and taken to the Algerian desert a second time, Omar* returned to Sfax after a second dangerous trek through the desert. This time at the km25 camp.

Now we're sleeping outside. It's an issue; we lack clean water and food. It's hard. People expect it to be dismantled again. Every day, we're afraid the police will come back.

The police beat us, they slap us. And if you ask questions, they hit you. That's all they do. When we were on the buses heading to the desert, the police tied us by the hands and feet, then threatened and insulted us.

I really hope I'll leave this hell soon. Hopefully, I'll be back at sea in a few days because I really can't take it anymore. But it's getting really hard to cross the Mediterranean. Most people have to try several times. I'm losing hope. I'm relying solely on the Lord now.

"In recent months, a whole security system has been put in place on the Tunisian coast to control the flow of migrants, but also the trafficking of raw materials used to make boats and engines," Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesperson for the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), a Tunisian NGO, told InfoMigrants. Therefore, during the first half of the year, landings from Tunisia recorded a significant drop. Italian authorities have recorded 1,996 arrivals this year, coming from Tunisia, compared to 10,247 in the first half of 2024.

Seydou, 26-year-old Malian

"There's a place in the capital where sub-Saharan Africans go to find odd jobs. These are jobs for a few days on construction sites, for example, for around 30 dinars. Thanks to that, seven other Malians and I pooled our money to rent an apartment in Tunis. But one morning, the police arrived. They entered our house and arrested everyone.

We were then taken to court. There, they asked us how we had entered the country. When we said we were undocumented, we were sent to prison. We spent two months in the Mornaguia facility.

After their arrest, migrants are convicted of "illegal stay" and sentenced to several months of detention. The situation is such that, according to migrants in contact with InfoMigrants, "the prisons are full of sub-Saharan Africans," locked up alongside common-law prisoners.

I went through an extremely difficult two months in detention. We've seen and experienced things we never want to see again. There are no amenities there; we're crammed together in very poor conditions. There are food problems, illnesses, and so on. When you get sick, no one does anything. The police don't even take you to see a doctor.

When we got out, we went back to Tunis and took back our apartment. But now, it's very different. We keep everything closed all the time. The door, the shutters, the windows... Everything. Because from time to time, the police come back and try to get in, to see what's going on.

We're afraid of getting arrested again, and the days now have no meaning. We stay indoors waiting to go to work; we get stressed when we're there. And we get stressed when we get back. We put a little money aside but don't do anything with it. Plus, the police can catch you at any moment and take your money.

This is a recurring practice, Mr. Ben Amor told InfoMigrants, "especially since the recent dismantling of camps near Sfax." "We've noticed an increasing number of migrants returning to Tunis and working-class neighborhoods. They are increasingly visible, and so there are many practices on the part of the police to reduce the presence of migrants in public spaces. So yes, these kinds of practices are common," he said.

One day, I got caught by the police. They took all the money I had on me and simply let me go. Sometimes it's over the phone. They extort money from us with ease. They really scare me. I don't remember the last time I felt safe. When you go to work, or do some shopping, they can catch you. No one protects us here.

That's why I'm going to apply for voluntary return with the IOM. Because Tunisia is too 'hot'. The police don't let us live. We're never at peace. There's too much suffering here. And above all, I'm too afraid of going back to prison.

As pressure on migrants in Tunisia increases, thousands of them are seeking to leave the country through the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) "voluntary return" program. But the agency, overwhelmed by cases, is struggling to process all requests.

In July 2025 alone, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Tunisia facilitated the "voluntary return" of 1,096 migrants. Since January, more than 5,000 migrants have been repatriated to their countries of origin via the UN agency. Since the beginning of the year, the number of requests from migrants wishing to return to their countries has increased by 20 percent.

At least in Mali, the situation is difficult and we don't have much money, but the police don't harass us all the time. We can't live like this in Tunisia anymore, it's hell."

*Names have been changed