They were called Fati and Marie. His bodies were inert, stranded in the vast desert. Until a few days ago they were found. Fati Dosso, 30, and his daughter Marie, barely six years old, put a face to the hell that hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers are experiencing, abandoned by the Tunisian security forces in the cruel Libyan bordera militarized zone in no man’s land.
in the last two weeks 25 people have been found dead on this border amid a wave of mass expulsions of migrants from Tunisia to Libya. The place, beyond the Ras Ajdir crossing, is inhospitable: a desert where temperatures can reach over 50 degrees and where no one can survive without shelter, water or food. The Tunisian authorities began a campaign of deportations at the beginning of this July, when clashes broke out fueled by racial hatred that Tunisian President Kais Saied has agitated.
Hundreds of sub-Saharan migrants and refugees, including minors and pregnant women, are currently blocked at the border. In Ras Ajdir, the improvised camps that were already set up in February 2011, when sub-Saharan, Arab and Asian immigrants who worked in Libya fled from clashes between rebels and Gaddafi troops, have been repeated. Now, the situation is repeated, but in the opposite direction.
If the drama that is experienced on this border has a face, it is undoubtedly those of Fati and his daughter Marie. Network Refugees in Libya has shed light on its history. They were not alone, they were accompanied by Mbengue Nyimbilo Crepin, known as Pato, Fati’s husband and Marie’s father, who has outlived his small family. He has been in shock ever since they showed him the photos of the bodies: “It’s exactly the same position the two of them always take to sleep. I was hoping that maybe they were just tired and would come back, but so far they’re not there.” Pato tries to overcome the pain of his loss: “What hurts me is that they knew before they died that I would also die because of the state in which they left me, but God saved me. I went to Libya to surprise my family, rather I’m the surprised one.”
Tunisian and international human rights organizations, in addition to the UN, have condemned the expulsions and mistreatment of migrants, especially of sub-Saharan origin, by the Tunisian authorities. Since the beginning of the year, Tunisia has been experiencing a wave of racial tension, fueled by President Saied, who blamed African migrants for all the ills the country suffers.