Revealed: Desperate migrants trying to reach Britain head to sea from Tunisia’s beaches in death trap home-made metal boats with car tyre tubes as life jackets
- Metal boats made in back street workshops and then sold to migrants in Tunisia
- They pay up to £1,500 a head for a place in them and the 120-mile journey to Italy
Desperate migrants are putting to sea from the beaches of Tunisia in death trap home-made boats and using car tyre inner tubes as life jackets, a MailOnline investigation has revealed.
The metal boats, made in back street workshops are then sold to migrants who pay up to 6,000 Tunisian Dinar (£1,500) a head for a place in them and the perilous 120-mile journey across the Mediterranean to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
So far this year more than 43,000 mainly sub-Saharan Africans have set sail from the beaches of Sfax and La Louza and more than 600 are thought to have drowned with children tragically among the victims.
Although most are happy to try and reach the safety of Italy or perhaps France or Germany, some are also keen to try and make it all the way to the United Kingdom where they have visions of securing a job and a wage.
MailOnline spoke to a group of Cameroonian men, who were among a group of 43 people that had paid 6,000 Tunisian Dinar for a place on a boat earlier this week and which failed to make Lampedusa after getting lost at sea.
Cameroonian men (from left) Jordan Tcheutou, 25, Fredo Ulrich, 25, and Ali Nasser, 30, who were among a group of 43 people that had paid 6,000 Tunisian Dinar for a place on a boat earlier this week and which failed to make Lampedusa in Italy after getting lost at sea
Broken steel boats used by the migrants from beaches in the village of La Louza in Tunisia
African migrants congregate in the port of Sfrax in Tunisia before hoping to make the trip by boat to the island of Lampedusa in southern Italy
Armed with just a simple compass on an iPhone, the group were pointed in the direction of the tiny Italian island, which is the steppingstone into Europe, and told to simply ‘go straight’ by the callous traffickers.
But within a few hours of setting off from La Louza the boat was lost and the desperate migrants – who also included women and small children – were rescued by a passing Tunisian fishing boat, who demanded payment in return for helping them.
In dramatic video shared with MailOnline, the group can be seen setting off in the metal boat and some onboard can be seen wearing car tyre inner tubes as makeshift life jackets in case of trouble.
Ali Nasser, 30, from Cameroon, told MailOnline he had spent five years in Morocco trying to get across a barbed wire fence into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta before deciding to try his luck in neighbouring Tunisia.
Standing on the beach close to where he was dumped after being towed back, he said: ‘We spent three days lost at sea before we were found by a Tunisian fishing boat.
‘The captain said he would take us back to shore, but he wanted paying so everyone had to hand over what little money they had left to him.
‘What other option did we have? We would have died from heat exhaustion or more likely the boat would have sunk.
African migrants are sheltering together at the main square in Sfax in Tunisia
MailOnline spoke to the group of Cameroonian men after their attempt to make the crossing
Many have now set up home in a park in the centre of the town of Sfax in Tunisia
‘They are not very safe; they are made in workshops by the people traffickers and then sold to the migrants. They are welded together and, in some places, they have a filler to stop the water getting in.
‘They are death-traps but what other option do we have? I tried crossing to Ceuta from Morocco several times and never made it, I was there five years and now I have decided to try from Tunisia. All I want to do is go to Europe, Italy, France, England I don’t care.’
Fredo Ulrich, 25, who was on the boat with him, said: ‘The traffickers sold us the boat and they told us where to meet and what time to be there.
‘We all got on and he just said ‘Use the compass in your iPhone and go straight, don’t go left don’t go right and you will end up in Lampedusa.
‘But after a few hours at sea the signal went, and we had no idea what direction we were going in. It’s very exposed and we were under the hot sun, I think we were going in circles for days.
‘Sometimes we tried to use the sun as a guide, we knew that when it was dawn the sun came from the east so we tried going that way but it’s no way to try and cross 120 miles of sea.’
Jordan Tcheutou, 25, who was also onboard, said: ‘The people traffickers are a mafia – all they want is your money. They don’t care about our lives. I’ve been here since April, and this was the first time I had tried.
So far this year more than 43,000 mainly sub-Saharan Africans have set sail from the beaches of Sfax and La Louza
Local restauranteur Halim Hamrouni and wife Sonia with their children Youseff, 12 and Henin, 6
African migrants congregate in the port of Sfrax in Tunisia
‘I worked for a while as a labourer to get the money to pay for a place on the boat and now I’ve lost it and I’m back here again. Inshallah (God willing) I will find another job and get the money to try again.
‘People say these boats are just ‘sailing coffins’ and they are right; they are death traps, but we have no option. I have a degree in engineering but no job in Cameroon, I need to find work to provide for my family and my government doesn’t help.’
Asked if they would like to go to England, all the men replied: ‘Who doesn’t want to go to England? But you need papers to get there and it’s another sea crossing as well. It would be worth it though, I hear there are jobs with good money.’
Jordan added: ‘It’s been my dream to go to Europe for a long time and I walked all the way from Cameroon to get to Tunisia. I know it’s dangerous but I must get into Europe.’
MailOnline told the men of the possibility that if they were caught trying to get into England they could be deported to Rwanda as part of the UK Government’s new stop the boats policy.
But he replied: ‘It’s about the same distance from Rwanda to Cameroon as it is to Cameroon to Tunisia so I will just keep trying.’
Many of the vessels which have been recovered by the Tunisian coastguard are towed back to harbour and left rusting in the fierce sunshine, the welding lines clearly visible and some still containing, clothes of migrants.
One jetty on the outskirts of Sfax has been dubbed Titanic by locals as it is a regularly used launching spot for the boats, with many sharing the same fate of the luxury liner that sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg.
A few minutes’ walk along the coast MailOnline bumped into a fisherman collecting his nets and who would only give his name as Sami.
Sekou Kourouma and his friend Konate Koss are among those in the port of Sfrax, Tunisia
Optician Safa Ammar, 32, whose shop overlooks the park, said the ‘smell is disgusting’
Fisherman Sami describes the location where the migrants set off from on their crossing attempt
Destroyed steel boats used by the migrants from beaches in the village of La Louza
Smoking heavily, the 27-year-old said: ‘I’ve lost count of the number of bodies I find at sea and on the beach these past few weeks.
‘I’ve seen so many and at first it left me shocked but now they are so common I’ve got used to it. If I see a child or a baby, and I have a few times then it gets me in the heart because I have children myself.
‘I think ‘Why has this happened to these little ones? They don’t deserve to die like this.’
‘Often it’s only just parts of the body I find because they have been in the water for so long and the fish have been eating them as well.’
As he spoke, local restaurant owner Youssef Hamrouni, 42, marched over and blasted the situation, blaming migrants for a massive downturn in his business of 80 percent compared to last summer.
He echoed the words of Tunisian president Kais Saied, who has said the migrants are part of a plot to weaken the country’s Arab identity and denied they were being mistreated despite claims of abuse and racism.
Youssef said: ‘This year has been a disaster for me. Last summer I had people queuing up outside my place to eat fish but now who wants to come and eat fish where bodies wash up in the water and in the nets?
‘Look at my place, it’s a Friday. It’s holidays and there is no one here. This is my livelihood and it’s all because of the sub-Saharan migrants. Do you know we are having trouble finding staples like bread, milk and sugar?
A pier in Essia Jarraya known locally as ‘Titanic’ where the boats leave carrying the migrants
‘God be with you’ is the message on this boat on a beach in the village of La Louza
Broken steel boats used by the migrants from beaches in the village of La Louza
Ramadan Raheem Mohammed Thooley who is hoping to play professional football in England
‘It’s because they are taking all of it and leaving nothing for us Tunisians. They need to close the borders to the south now and then let everyone of them who wants to get on a boat leave so we can get back to normal.
‘The past few weeks when I’ve been walking up and down the beach I’ve found bodies, and some are children and that upsets me but they should stay home, it’s dangerous is it worth risking your life for?
‘They say they are escaping poverty and have no money but where do they get the money then to pay the people traffickers? They should stay at home, things are getting bad now, already we have had Tunisians murdered by sub-Saharans and it will get worse.’
On Sunday the EU agreed to give Tunisia an eye watering €1billion to fight people smuggling and help prop up the country’s failing economy and Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and the Prime Ministers of Italy and the Netherlands were in the capital Tunis to sign the agreement.
It comes after President Saied said Tunisia would not be the ‘EU’s border guard’ with many insiders saying the handout is a sweetener to smooth him over in a bid to try and avert another wave of migration into Europe.
In the city of Sfax itself, earlier this month there were riots following the fatal stabbing of a Tunisian man and three Cameroonians were later arrested and charged with murder, but it led to several nights of violence as migrants were forced out of their accommodation by angry mobs.
Tunisian President Kais Saied (second right), Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni (right), President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (second left) and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte (left) at the Presidential Palace in Tunis yesterday, where it was announced that a cooperation memorandum of understanding had been signed between Tunisia and the EU
Many have now set up home in a park in the centre of the town, an area awash with plastic bottles, cardboard boxes and with washing hanging from trees as migrants try to shelter from the fierce sun.
MailOnline spoke to Haruna Turay, 23, from Sierra Leone, who was forced out of his house by a mob armed with sticks, knives and dogs and forced to flee for his life.
He said: ‘I don’t know where to go or what to do. I just want to get a better life for myself England, France. Italy, I don’t care. All I know is that Tunisian people are racists, and they hate us, they don’t want us here in their country.
‘I was working to find money to pay for the crossing but I had to run from my house because the people attacked me, now I’m living in a park sleeping on cardboard and having to get bread and water from charity.’
Optician Safa Ammar, 32, whose shop overlooks the park said: ‘Of course I feel sorry for these people they are humans like us but they need to be moved on. The smell is disgusting, and the rubbish is terrible.
‘No one is coming to my shop because they are scared of having to walk past these people. Something needs to be done by our government and it needs to be done quickly or there will be trouble.’
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