Ivory Coast gives evicted citizens in Tunisia emergency housing

The Ivory Coast’s Tunisia embassy has provided emergency accommodation for dozens of its citizens, including young children, made homeless due to a crackdown ordered by President Kais Saied, a diplomat said Wednesday.

Last week, Saied had ordered security forces to take “urgent measures” against “hordes” of sub-Saharan African migrants, accusing them without evidence of causing a wave of crime and plotting to change the country’s demographic make-up.

Landlords across the country, fearing they would incur heavy fines for housing people without hard-to-obtain paperwork, then started turfing out migrants.

Many Ivorians and Malians ended up camping for several nights outside their embassies during a cold snap, huddling with their worldly belongings as they waited to be repatriated.

“On Monday we were swamped, but yesterday evening we managed to organise shelter for 55 people including at least four women with young children,” an embassy official told AFP.

The official said the embassy had rented an entire building comprising a dozen furnished apartments.

The diplomat also said a stream of “good-willed Tunisians” had also brought donations of blankets, preserved food and bread to the embassy.

Many of the migrants had been in Tunisia for more than five years before being suddenly ordered to leave, he said, adding “people need to be given time to organise themselves”.

More than 800 Ivorians have registered to be repatriated, the official added.

The embassies of West African countries have been negotiating with Tunis for a waiver of fines against those who have overstayed their visas.

Given the difficulties of obtaining residency documents from Tunisia’s tortuous bureaucracy, many have racked up fines of over 1,000 euros, sums few West African migrants can afford.