2023-04-17 22:05:09
In Sfax, a port city and economic capital in the east of the country, sub-Saharan migrants who have been living in the city for a long time have been able to set up their own business. After the controversial remarks of President Kaïs Saïed, many came to support the community of irregular migrants and student victims of aggression, thanks to their network and their local roots in the associative world. They evoke a before and following of the president’s remarks. A feeling even in the entrepreneurial dynamic that had begun to form in Sfax…
From our special correspondent in Sfax,
At Espace Kufanya, an incubator for migrant entrepreneurs in downtown Sfax. Paul Laurent Nyobe Lipot, Cameroonian, opened the premises only for this report, the activities there are at a standstill.
« There is no activity because, since the president’s speech, it has also become difficult to talk regarding issues of economic integration with migrants, because directly, they come up with the argument that the president of the Republic said, “he doesn’t want us in Tunisia“So this message of economic integration no longer necessarily affects migrant beneficiaries, but all the same, we remain mobilized. We think the wave will pass hopes Paul Laurent Nyobe Lipot.
Despite this resilience, the statements of the president and the tightening of the authorities on the status of irregular migrants have left their mark on the economic level. “ For example, you have the Tunisian post where the migrants had the possibility of sending money inside the Tunisian territory by paying their expenses with just the presentation of their passport, there for example, there now, they do not do more. They no longer have the authorization to do so, clearly, it is indicated, there is no law which prohibits foreigners from doing so, but it is indicated that each agent refuses any Sub-Saharan who presents himself for Send money “, he says.
Persistent difficulties
At his side, Loïc Oyono, settled in Tunisia for six years, he studied in Sfax and then set up his IT development company Ida Vision. He mentions persistent administrative difficulties, sometimes of a discriminatory nature. ” I have nearly six bank accounts in Tunisia and it was yesterday that I was able to have an account in dinars, but even this account is on hold. Normally at the moment it’s just to pay the bills and so on », explains Loïc Oyono.
Frank Yotedje, executive director of the association Afrique intelligence and who owns Sapientia, a consulting firm that provides legal support to migrants, notes a step back. ” Even for basic services, we ask for a residence permit, even for simple legalizations, even for simple documents and that has reopened the vicious circle in which we had the impression since 2018 of having escaped, the vicious circle of the title stay says Frank Yotedje.
He came to encourage the future generation during a football match in Sfax between Cameroonian and Gabonese students, but in this new context, it is difficult to know how many of them will stay to try the entrepreneurial adventure in Tunisia once their studies are finished.
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