First modification:
In Tunisia, since the controversy unleashed by President Kaïs Saïed’s comments on sub-Saharan migrants, the Presidency of the Republic and the government have tried to calm the tone in a joint statement published on Sunday night, March 5. However, many sub-Saharan students remain cooped up at home.
With our correspondent in Tunisia, Lilia Blaise
In its statement, the presidency expresses its “astonishment” at a campaign of “alleged racism in Tunisia” and recalls the vote on the 2018 law against racism and that Tunisia is proud to be an African country. The government has also announced a battery of measures to help sub-Saharan students in Tunisia, including the granting of a one-year residence permit. But, for now, many are afraid and are following their courses online, locked up at home, since the violence and arrests that followed President Said’s statements.
Saied denounced on February 21 the presence of “hordes” of clandestines who are part of “a criminal enterprise” that intends to “change the demographic composition” of the Maghreb country.
The Tunisian president has been accused by NGOs of being “racists” and “fomenting hate”.
After his speech, reports of attacks against sub-Saharan migrants multiplied, who flocked to their respective embassies to ask to be repatriated.
“Tunisians continue to go to school”
Dulcinée, 21, comes from the Central African Republic. She studies at the Central University of Tunis, where she begins her second year of international business. Accustomed to online courses during the pandemic, this option, in the current Tunisian context, takes on a whole new dimension: “The difference with Covid-19 was that everyone was at home. The difference with this situation is that the Tunisians continue to go to school and we sub-Saharans are the ones who take the online courses”.
A necessary distinction before the risk of aggression. Many universities offer online courses after sub-Saharan students were told to stay home. Dulcinée has not gone out for a week: “These online courses do not favor us too much because there are certain subjects that deserve to be studied in person, such as mathematics; calculus, online, does not favor us very much, but we have to get used to it because it is very complicated, not we can go out for fear of being attacked.
“It is not like before”
A sentiment shared by Gaspard, a 22-year-old Congolese international business student: “We run a few errands and then we go home, we’re always here, there’s no unnecessary travel, we’re always there and it’s really complicated. The truth is that we already It’s not like before.According to student associations, there are between 5,000 and 7,000 sub-Saharan students in Tunisia.
