Ayman Milad went through a gruelling journey with death before reaching Tunisian waters, coming from Egypt via Libya, in search of a better life on the other side of the shore, where Europe lies, the land of dreams for many young Arabs/Egyptians. But luck was not on his side: the small boat he was travelling in with dozens of young Egyptians and Africans sank in August 2021, starting another series of hardships that began with extensive interrogations of him by the Tunisian authorities, then numerous attempts to regularise his status and work.
Milad says: “I left Egypt in 2021 looking for a better life, planning to migrate illegally through Libya and then Tunisia to Europe, but the boat sank in Tunisian waters and we were arrested. After a series of interrogations with the Tunisian authorities, I tried to regularise my status and travel. I turned to my family in Assiut Governorate, in southern Egypt, to provide a sum of money, and I did borrow an amount so I could travel legally, but I was defrauded online by Tunisian individuals and lost the amount (EGP 20,000), after which I decided to stay and work in Tunisia.”
He continues: “I tried to start a new life in Tunisia to earn a living, but there were two obstacles in my way: the first was that my passport had expired in January 2023, so I could not renew my residency, and at the same time I did not have the cost of renewing the passport, which was equivalent to about (USD 320). Since then I have been living in Tunisia without residency or papers, and from time to time I am questioned by the security services; some of them sympathise with my situation, and others investigate me for a while and then leave me alone.”
Compared with living conditions in Egypt at present, Milad believes they are almost somewhat better in Tunisia, especially when it comes to food, but the economic conditions are largely similar, except that the Tunisian dinar still retains purchasing value.
Asked why he has not returned to Egypt despite the difficult circumstances he is going through, Milad says that he is “a citizen from Upper Egypt; his family and everyone are awaiting his return, but it is difficult for him to return without achieving any goal he aspired to before travelling, especially since he left everything and travelled to achieve great hopes, without which it is difficult to return.”
While official reports indicate that the size of the Egyptian community inside Tunisian territory does not exceed one thousand citizens, and that it is the largest Arab community present in the country, followed by the Syrian and then the Iraqi, many reports speak of several times this number of irregular Egyptian migrants inside Tunisia. The numbers reflect a notable increase in the numbers of Egyptians trying to escape across the Mediterranean, specifically by passing from Libya to Tunisia, over the past years: according to the latest data published by the International Organization for Migration, there were 117,156 Egyptian migrants in Libya between December 2021 and January 2022, while the report notes that Egyptians make up the second largest number of migrants in Libya, accounting for 18% of all migrants.
According to recent data published by Frontex (the European Border and Coast Guard Agency), there were a total of 3,292 detections of Egyptian nationals along the Central Mediterranean route to the European Union between January and May 2022; Egyptians were therefore the most common nationality detected along the Central Mediterranean route during this period, accounting for 20% of Central Mediterranean detections in the first five months of 2022. Between January and April 2022, there were a total of 2,601 detections of illegal border crossings by Egyptian nationals, representing 4% of all operations detected during this period.
Tunisia has been a vital crossing point for those fleeing Egypt via Libya in recent years, but those who failed to cross have been forced to stay inside Tunisian territory for long periods. With the deteriorating economic situation and increasing security restrictions, Egyptians face additional suffering related to the ability to secure a livelihood and to live safely, as they told Zawia3, while most of them prefer to stay in Tunisia rather than return without achieving any ambitions, or for fear of the debts awaiting them in Egypt, and some of them also fear security prosecution.
Tunisia’s transformation into a transit country for migrants from Africa to Europe stems from several important factors, most notably the chronic instability in the Sahel region and the resulting waves of migration, Tunisia’s porous borders, its inconsistent migration policies, as well as the spread of violence and xenophobic behaviour in the country and the deterioration of its economic conditions. The challenges Tunisia faces in the migration file have been exacerbated by the authorities’ inability to develop a comprehensive strategy to manage the flow of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. In response to this situation, the government has mostly resorted to security-based approaches and short-term tactics, according to the Carnegie Center.
Why Do Egyptians Migrate?
Egyptians are the nationality that most often ventures to cross the Mediterranean, making up 20% of all those crossing to the European continent during the first five months of 2022. The “Middle East Eye” website attributed the reasons for Egyptians’ migration to “extreme poverty”, as the rising cost of living has eroded Egypt’s already crumbling safety net, leading to a decline in the material standard of about 60 million people, who fell below the poverty line, and forcing many of them to cross the border into Libya. The website also points to violence as one of the factors pushing Egyptians to leave their homeland, and quoted the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre in Geneva as saying that there were 1,000 new displacements due to violence in Egypt.
Human rights lawyer and director of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights Malek Adly believes that migration is a complex issue, involving multiple reasons that affect different groups. For example, there are political opponents who have been persecuted, as well as those who cannot find suitable job opportunities in Egypt. Many of them decided to leave the country in search of better conditions, even if in unsafe countries such as Libya.
Adly says, speaking to Zawia3: “Migrants can be divided into three main categories: the first includes political opponents and human rights activists who were subjected to harassment and restrictions at some point that made them resort to leaving the country; the second includes those who cannot find a livelihood in Egypt and decided to flee across the sea in search of a living; and the third category includes people who do not have enough job opportunities suited to their qualifications, some of whom decided, for example, to travel to Libya, which has about one million citizens, most of whom work in arduous jobs and very difficult security conditions in search of suitable wages. These economic and social factors lead to higher migration rates, as people feel forced to leave the homeland in search of a better future.”
According to Adly, the number of migrants from Egypt reaches about 10% of all Egyptians, a large number that could equal the population of a country, but there is no accurate count of the numbers so far. It can be said that the reasons for this are many, but the most important remain living conditions and the repellent labour market inside the country, especially regarding employment conditions, the application of the minimum wage and the difficult living conditions that citizens cannot bear.
He gives the medical sector as an example of the deterioration of the work environment in Egypt, as it is witnessing wholesale problems related to a poor work environment, low wages and other reasons that push hundreds, if not thousands, of doctors to leave the country annually, leaving behind a major crisis in the shortage of medical competencies. He believes that institutions suffer from a lack of good governance, which gives opportunities to the less competent at the expense of the more competent, pushing most competencies to migrate abroad, especially to countries that provide suitable working conditions and fair wages.
He adds: “The government has so far been unable to impose the minimum wage on many companies, especially those linked to the private sector, which has pushed workers to demonstrate and protest continuously in the recent period and exposes them to risks, and most of them are trained and rare labour. In contrast, many countries offer special privileges and excellent wages to trained workers, and a worker’s daily salary abroad may equal his salary for a full month’s work inside Egypt. With the continuous economic pressure on people, Egyptians resort to migrating abroad, for many reasons, but most of them relate to finding a suitable work environment and a fair wage.”
Economic researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights Mohamed Ramadan agrees with him on the importance of the economic dimension as one of the reasons for the increasing migration of Egyptians abroad. He says, speaking to Zawia3, that “the current composition of Egyptians indicates that between (60-65%) of citizens are of working age; it is natural for a large number of them to resort to migration unless there are national and development projects capable of absorbing these energies and providing them with fair wages and a decent work environment.”
According to Ramadan, rising migration rates are a direct result of high inflation and the low standard of living of the individual. Since the 1970s and 1980s, Egypt has also suffered from an organic link between the domestic labour market and the Gulf states, which have remained one of the most important alternative mechanisms for Egyptian labour to adapt to economic conditions. Comparing the labour market in Egypt and the Gulf, we find that the skills required for work are almost similar, while there is a large disparity in wages, which pushes the majority of Egyptian workers to resort to working in those countries to secure a source of income commensurate with economic conditions.
According to Ramadan, the employment of Egyptians abroad affects two main axes: the first is linked to increasing sources of foreign income as a result of increased remittances from Egyptians abroad, which represent 8-10% of income, and this is a positive aspect; but the negative aspect is linked to what is called the “brain drain”, clearly represented in the migration of doctors, as about 30,000 to 40,000 doctors migrate annually, which greatly deepens the crisis of the health sector in Egypt and increases spending pressures on citizens.
He believes that the brain drain from Egypt deprives the country of added value in the long term, and that it would be better for the state to retain them and provide better job opportunities for them in return for human investment in developing minds and thus relying on them to develop the economy and achieve comprehensive development. Despite the many projects in the recent period, Ramadan believes they do not provide an incubating environment for minds and skills working in many fields, in addition to the fact that many of them are temporary work projects and do not provide an attractive environment for labour.
An important factor linked to migration, according to Ramadan, relates to the exchange rate and the decline in the value of the pound against foreign currencies along with the rising cost of living, so Egyptians seek to save expenses. He notes that living conditions and the fall in the exchange rate have recently pushed a number of Egyptian workers abroad to take up some professions that were not previously widespread among Egyptians, such as working in the cleaning sector, for example, in some Gulf states.
Egyptians Between “the Two Millstones”
In May 2019, Hazem Mohamed (32) was forced to leave his small town in Dakahlia Governorate after debts piled up on him, and left for Libya taking an illegal route, only to face a tragedy related to the harsh situation inside Libyan territory, which prompted him and a number of his companions to think of fleeing to Tunisia in the hope of leaving for Europe, before the authorities arrested them; some of them were deported and others were kept for reasons Hazem does not know.
He says: “The debts were increasing every day, and my source of income was weak, barely enough to meet the needs of my family, made up of my wife, three children and my mother. When I lost hope of getting a job with a suitable wage, as I work as a carpenter but do not own a workshop and was forced to work as a day labourer for a meagre wage, I decided to migrate in search of a new opportunity, even if the adventure was fraught with dangers. When I arrived in Libya I found the security situation very deteriorated; while I was earning a suitable wage, I was surrounded by death on every side because of the armed groups there, so I decided to travel to Tunisia and from there to Europe.”
He adds: “In Tunisia, things were not better, and we failed to get through to Europe because of security pursuit by the Tunisian border guards. I was living in harsh conditions, with no safety or stability, and I met many migrants suffering from the same problems. I am still betting on migrating to Europe as a way out of my suffering, but the road was full of dangers, especially with the tightened security on the European borders recently. Many friends I know were unable to arrive, and some of them were detained. Nevertheless, I do not have the ability to give up my goal, as escaping debts and difficult living conditions was my main driver, and to this day I cannot return because prison awaits me due to accumulated debts and their owners resorting to the courts.”
He goes on: “Every day, I wake up to new hope; my wish is to find a way to reach Europe, where I can build a new life for myself and my family. Despite all the difficulties, I believe that a better future awaits me, and I know that the challenges I face now are just part of my journey towards freedom and dignity.”
Last March, 30 associations supporting migrants’ rights explained, in a joint press statement, the increase in cases of violence, racism and xenophobia in Tunisia, particularly against migrants in the country, and stated in their statement that “institutional and police violence has reached its peak with the growth of networks smuggling migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, who are handed over to Libyan militias at the border”. They pointed to communication between smuggling networks and Libyan militias during the forced transfer of migrants from Tunisia to Libya, and to an increase in kidnappings for ransom, especially in the city of Sfax.
Ali Abdel Wanis, who lives in one of the working-class neighbourhoods of Tunis, where living conditions were very difficult, rented a small room in an old house and began looking for work. He found a job as a construction worker, but the wage was very low, barely enough to cover his daily expenses. He worked long hours under the sun while thinking of his family in Egypt, worried that they depended on him. Fear began to take hold of him, especially with news spreading about deportations of illegal migrants.
He says: “I do not have any identity documents; I lost them on my journey, and I cannot go to the official authorities to obtain a replacement for fear of being deported. Every time I see policemen, my heart beats faster. I feared that moment would be the end of my journey, the moment of deportation to Egypt, where I no longer have anything. Life away from home is very harsh and I always feel lonely, especially because I did not speak Tunisian well, which made integrating into society difficult. I tried to be careful and stayed away from places that might arouse suspicion, but fear dominated my daily life, which made me feel I was living in a nightmare.”
Is Tunisia Deporting Egyptian Migrants?
Last May, hundreds of people demonstrated in the governorate of Sfax in central Tunisia to demand the rapid evacuation of thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan African countries, and MP Tarek Mahdi described the situation as “unacceptable, and the authorities must find a solution”. Days earlier, the authorities had forcibly evacuated hundreds of migrants from camps they had set up in front of the headquarters of United Nations organisations in the capital, before “deporting them to the Algerian border”, according to what the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights announced.
The security authorities in Tunisia said that 12,500 migrants from sub-Saharan African countries have returned to their countries since the beginning of this year, under the voluntary return programme. The National Guard administration said that many irregular migrants had submitted requests at security headquarters to return to their countries. The authorities in Tunisia had launched a wide security campaign to pursue irregular migrants on their territory, which drew criticism from human rights organisations in the country.
The illegal migration file represents a major pressure factor on Tunisia, which, according to official statements, has caused unemployment and poverty problems to worsen, as many young people seek to migrate in search of better opportunities.
This situation reflects general frustration and increases the rate of migration within society, leading to an erosion of trust in government institutions. On the political level, the migration crisis is sometimes used as a tool of pressure by internal and external parties, and the Tunisian government is under pressure to improve migration management and limit the flow of migrants, while lacking the resources needed to achieve this. This crisis may also affect the stability of the government and increase divisions among political forces, which complicates reform and development efforts. Tunisia also suffers from increasing pressures as a result of the flow of migrants, which leads to increased pressure on limited resources. Infrastructure, such as health and education, may suffer from overcrowding and increased demand, which negatively affects the quality of services provided to the local population.
Tunisian political analyst specialising in migration issues Bassam Hamdi says that his country is working according to a broad security strategy to secure its borders with neighbouring countries, whether Libya or Algeria, in light of its efforts to confront irregular migration flows, and is also working to apply a similar strategy on the maritime border with European countries, to prevent migration boats from reaching European shores, as well as to prevent dozens of victims as a result of these boats sinking at sea.
Speaking to Zawia3, Hamdi points out that Tunisia initially started from a security approach to combating illegal migration, and today it is discussing with neighbouring Euro-Mediterranean countries and North African countries, especially Libya and Algeria, the formulation of a comprehensive strategy covering the humanitarian, rights and security dimensions in addressing the phenomenon of illegal migration.
He believes that there are many reasons that, in recent years, have led to an increase in the numbers of Egyptians slipping across the Tunisian border, wishing to sail to Europe, perhaps most notably the political instability and armed conflict on Libyan territory, which represents a source of income for many Egyptian workers who resorted to slipping across the Tunisian border to Europe. The second factor is the spread of irregular migration networks inside Tunisia, especially those that exploit the Tunisian maritime border extending to the European border.
Hamdi notes that Egyptian migrants represent the largest Arab nationality that has tried to sneak into Europe across the Tunisian border in past years, given their large numbers inside Libyan territory, and they are constantly looking for an alternative source of income by travelling to Europe.
Regarding the possibility of deporting illegal Egyptian migrants from Tunisia, he says that his country deals with this file according to three gradual punitive measures: the first is imprisonment for six months for crossing the Tunisian border clandestinely, then they are dealt with by deportation to their countries. He stresses that the entry of Egyptians, Syrians and some other Arabs into Tunisia represents a great burden on the state, which has the full right to deport anyone who sneaks across its border clandestinely, and this happens after diplomatic coordination with Arab countries.
In recent years, Tunisia has repeatedly deported illegal Egyptian migrants, but Tunisian human rights sources who spoke to Zawia3 and preferred not to be named confirmed that none of those deported in recent years were political or human rights activists wanted by Cairo in political cases or others related to freedoms, and all of them were fishermen or Egyptian workers who slipped across the border with Libya.
Asked whether Tunisia had deported political activists in the recent period, Malek Adly says that the recent period has not seen the deportation of people wanted by the security services from the countries to which large numbers of Egyptians have left, whether Tunisia, Turkey or Qatar, especially those linked to political cases, and perhaps the cases that occurred are very few and individual. He notes that arrangements in this context are made secretly according to security arrangements between states, and are mostly not announced, and “I do not think any political activists have been deported from Tunisia to Egypt recently, but in the case of illegal migrants they are returned to their countries, and this happens with Egypt as it happens with most migrants from various countries”.
Ultimately, the harsh conditions Egyptians live in abroad, especially illegal migrants to Tunisia, reflect a darker mirror of the lives of Egyptians in general: they flee crises in search of hope and a dignified life, only to face another torrent of hardships and a lack of safety, especially in a country like Tunisia, which is experiencing economic and political crises, from rising anti-migrant sentiment, which intensifies the crises these individuals live through, who carry hopes and ambitions that do not match the reality they face.
These challenges are a test of human dignity, as migrants lack protection and basic rights, putting them in difficult situations. Therefore, it is necessary for governments and international organisations to take serious steps to strengthen migrants’ rights and provide them with the necessary support, ensuring them a dignified life. There is no doubt that addressing the migration crisis requires a comprehensive vision aimed at achieving cooperation between states and providing safe and suitable environments for migrants, instead of exclusion and discrimination, although it would be more fitting for their own countries to provide them with a just and dignified life.
