'I can no longer receive money, I can no longer work': Sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia pushed into poverty, 02 May 2025

The Tunisian government is prohibiting undocumented migrants from receiving foreign currency and from working...
Thomas* is living in extreme hardship in Tunis. The Nigerian, who has been living undocumented in Tunisia for several years, sinks deeper into poverty every day... He can neither send nor receive money through currency transfer agencies, whether they are banks or post offices. "You are asked to leave if you try to enter an agency being Black," he says...

The restrictions began in the summer of 2023, following a presidential meeting held on July 14 that was broadcast on Facebook. In a long speech hostile to irregular immigration, President Kaïs Saïed ..."The Tunisian authorities are reinforcing their crackdown [on migrants]," said Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesperson for the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), a non-governmental organization (NGO) for migrant rights...The Tunisian presidency has issued other warnings in addition to the banking prohibition. Tunisians are now prohibited from employing undocumented sub-Saharan Africans or renting apartments to them. Migrants are strictly forbidden from setting up informal camps in the olive groves of the Sfax region...

Thomas and the other migrants are economically cornered, relying exclusively on increasingly rare and increasingly "greedy” intermediaries. Some not only charge "excessive" commissions, but others even disappear with all the money. It's also impossible to count on help from the Tunisians...She lives in one of the camps in the Sfax region, “far from the city, far from banks. To get money, we make do," she said without elaborating. Some people barter, she said, while others use Orange Money, a system that doesn't require going to the bank or the post office...
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In addition to economic sanctions, migrants are also targeted by arbitrary arrests, convictions for "illegal residence," roundups, and abandonment in the desert. "I hardly leave my apartment anymore," said Thomas, stuck in the Tunisian capital. "I'm afraid of someone reporting me, I'm afraid of walking in the street, I'm afraid of dying."...
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