Along the main road running through downtown El Amra, Tunisians and illegal immigrants live together but do not mix. Each group has its own café and span of sidewalk. Located in the center of Tunisia’s central-eastern coastal region, which stretches some 60 kilometers from Sfax to Chebba, the town has become one of the main ports of departure for the Italian island of Lampedusa, less than 150 kilometers off the Tunisian coast. Smugglers, metal boat builders, engine dealers, lookouts and intermediaries of all sorts all keep very busy here.

Despite official rhetoric from Tunis about the fight against traffickers and the border control function delegated to it by the European Union, crossings have increased over recent months. On Wednesday, September 13, the Italian authorities reported a record number of migrants arriving from Tunisia, with almost 7,000 people disembarking in 24 hours.

In response, the Tunisian interior ministry announced a large-scale security operation. On September 16 and 17, hundreds of illegal immigrants who had taken refuge in the historic center of Sfax after being evicted from their homes and subjected to a manhunt with the help of the police were transported to rural areas, in particular to the towns of Jebeniana and El Amra. But the forced relocation brought them even closer to the departure areas for Europe.

"They bring petrol next to fire," said Thameur Rouis, a resident of El Amra, who came on Friday, September 22 to protest with 15 other people in front of the local headquarters of the French government against the arrival of migrants in the town and surrounding olive groves. For this graying father, the rhetoric of the authorities on their fight against irregular migration contradicts what the forces of law and order are actually doing locally. "El Amra is known for trafficking, but they dump migrants here and then pretend they have the sea under control," Rouis said.

Protestors fear the presence of Sub-Saharan Africans in their town will encourage young people from the surrounding neighborhoods "with no money and no prospects" to become smugglers. However, security forces have stepped up their presence in the region since mass arrivals at Lampedusa in mid-September and the evacuation of the Sfax center. Armored vehicles of the Special Unit of the National Guard (USGN), an elite unit of the Tunisian Gendarmerie, are now patrolling the roads at all times while aircraft fly over the coastline.

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