Thousands of migrants, mainly from sub-Saharan African countries, are gathering in camps in the cities of Al-Amera and Jebniana in the Sfax Governorate. They have become the target of repeated raids by the Tunisian authorities since the beginning of 2026, at a time when the authorities say they want to facilitate their “voluntary return.”

Published on: 05/02/2026 - 16:01

Burnt tents, torn clothes and broken tent poles. On February 2, 2026, photos revealed a new operation by Tunisian security forces to raid migrant tents in areas near the coastal city of Sfax.

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The same scenario was also repeated on the night between 15 and 16 January last year in the migrant camp in the city of Al-Amra. A primitive tent that was used as a hospital was reduced to rubble, like the rest of what was in the camp. Eyewitnesses and non-governmental organizations accuse the National Guard forces of being behind the sabotage of this camp.

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Migrant camps located in the cities of Amra and Jebniana, located about 30 km from the center of the coastal city of Sfax, appeared during the year 2023 and turned into major gathering points for migrants in Tunisia, who established them around olive fields and agricultural lands in the hope that they would be able to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe with smugglers.

Having previously been targeted through an operation to remove them during April 2025, these camps are still targeted by the authorities today. Local associations defending refugee rights denounce the intensification of raids and violence practiced by security forces who intervene against them at night.

"Kilometers of bombs" in the city of Al-Amera

In a call with the FRANCE 24 observers team, John (a pseudonym), who is from an English-speaking country in sub-Saharan Africa and is one of the refugees living in Al-Amra camp, said:

There are ongoing demolitions of tents using fire. Since the beginning of this year, things have become brutal. Security forces are coming now, during the night and in the early morning hours, to finish what they started. It intervenes in an area of ​​up to 10 km in diameter around the tents. Here we call them “bomb kilometers.” It's a new style, they come every two or three nights. "When people see a large number of cars, we know what will happen."

“The goal is to terrorize people with the aim of pushing them to return to their countries, which they call voluntary.”

David Yambio is one of the founders of the organization "Refugees in Libya" (Refugees in Libya in Arabic) and its official spokesman. The organization documents the situation of refugees in Tunisia and Libya. Yambio denounced these new forms of violence that have become systematic since the beginning of last January, adding:

Primitive self-run hospitals are always destroyed. The goal is to terrorize people into making what they say is a voluntary return to their countries. Then, in the morning, the police come to announce that a bus will come to take them back. It's a new style. After about a year and a few months, at least half of the refugees were forcefully deported to their countries of origin by the Tunisian government while others disappeared in different villages. Some of them were also evacuated to the Algerian desert, while others remain in prison. A few of them succeeded in crossing the Mediterranean Sea and are now in European countries.

The tent, which was used as a primitive hospital according to the migrants present at the site, was burned on January 16 in an area near the city of Sfax.

According to the "Refugees in Libya" organization, this new method adopted by the authorities in Tunisia directly affects the lives of people in the camps. Between the cities of Al-Amera and Jebniana, the organization recently estimated that the number of migrants still present there is around 10,000, after their number was about 30,000 during the month of November 2024.

Helena, a pseudonym, is one of the refugees who lives in a primitive refugee camp in Al-Amera. She says:

If they (security forces) come at night and my children are sleeping, I wake them up. We run away. They steal our luggage and tents, and leave us nothing. This way I protect my children, there is no other way, because there is nowhere to go. They steal gas bottles. If we have our phones they take them by force. If they saw that we had money, they would take it and shout at us. They would not hesitate to remove our clothes for the purpose of searching. They don't even care if it's a woman.

“Civilians armed with knives and hunting rifles attack migrants.”

The occupation of olive farms caused tension with the local residents who owned these lands. Civilians armed with knives and hunting rifles attack migrants. We documented many cases of killing committed by Tunisian citizens,” said David Yambio.

According to the report “Patterns of Migrants in the City of Sfax,” which was funded by the European Union and MC2CM (Mediterranean City-to-City Migration), the region provides informal jobs in agriculture and industry for men and in homes for women.

However, Tunisian law prohibits the employment of immigrants in professions that can be performed by Tunisians. A case cannot be filed against Meshaal if he assaults an immigrant, which increases the fear of these people that their place of residence will be declared illegal to the Tunisian police.

Combating migration...a field of strategic cooperation between Tunisia and the European Union

On July 16, 2023, Tunisia and the European Union reached an agreement providing Tunisia with 105 million euros to combat illegal immigration. In its broad outlines, this agreement relates to providing Tunisia with ships, mobile radars, camera devices, and vehicles, in addition to cooperation in the field of combating smuggling networks.

According to migrants and local organizations, this repressive policy is directly reflected in daily operations. Nowadays, organizations such as the Red Crescent and Doctors of the World are no longer visible in the migrant camps around the city of Sfax.

Here, David Yambio returns to add:

For about two years, all local organizations have been targeted by the Tunisian authorities. Social activists and even people who provided free legal information or medicine to migrants in the area have been imprisoned. “We therefore decided to limit our outreach to local civil society.”

“They receive money, and in return they convince people to return to their countries.”

In July 2025, the authorities in Tunisia confirmed that they would cover the cost of air tickets to deport migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to their countries of origin, a method parallel to the return routes supervised by the International Organization for Migration.

This is known as the “voluntary” return mechanism to countries of origin, and migrants share information about it via chat groups on Facebook and WhatsApp. Those who supervise these groups quickly take care of the migrants and say that two return flights are organized within a week. According to the French newspaper Le Monde, people who accept to return receive an amount of 100 euros, and no one takes care of them when they arrive in their countries of origin. In contrast, returns supervised by the International Organization for Migration are slower to organize but provide better monitoring of migrants.

According to David Yambio, these groups are supervised by migrants paid by the Tunisian government, and he adds:

I myself was a member of this group, but unfortunately, some of the people I know from the ranks of immigrants have turned into agents in the service of the Tunisian government and are participating in spreading this discourse about voluntary return. We have been following this matter for seven months. The government successfully pressured the managers of these groups to reach an agreement. They receive money and in return encourage people to return to their homes. Then they closed these groups on WhatsApp when we started exposing them about what was going on.”

The Tunisian authorities have not confirmed their connection to these groups, and the phone number codes from the numbers in this WhatsApp group mostly come from countries such as Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso or Niger.

Despite the France 24 Observers editorial team's attempt to contact her about these accusations of repeated raids on migrant camps and the presence of this initiative about voluntary return on social media, the National Guard and the Ministry of the Interior in Tunisia did not respond to our calls.

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