Tunis: Last Sunday evening, Sierra Leonean Haji, a resident of an irregular migrant camp in Henchir Ben Farhat, El Amra, Sfax governorate, picked up his mobile phone and called local civil society activist Mohamed Bakri to ask for help and an ambulance for a woman in the camp who had gone into labour. Bakri recounted the incident to TAP news agency on his way back to the town of El Amra after visiting migrant camps in the region with a group of local civil society activists. I called international and aid organisations and the emergency number '193' more than once to help the pregnant woman after she went into labour, but I received no response,' he said. Thousands of irregular migrants from sub-Saharan Africa gather in camps set up in different areas of the south-eastern province of Sfax, waiting for the right moment to migrate secretely by sea to the shores of Europe. Bakri's fellow civil society activists in the city say they have mobilised special resources to help the migrants, so as not to lose cont act with them. This will allow them to intervene and resolve the occasional conflicts and problems that arise between El Amra residents and the migrants, they said, while keeping in constant contact with the authorities in case of developments. Henchir Ben Farhat, located to the west of the town of Amra and intended for olive cultivation, is home to thousands of sub-Saharan migrants of Sierra Leonean, Guinean, Ivorian, Nigerian, Malian and other nationalities, according to information received by the TAP team and its observations on the ground. Mohamed Ben Farah, a local civil society activist in El Amra, told TAP that the camp is one of the largest of the 17 camps located between El Amra and Jebeniana, which are mostly inhabited by irregular migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Thousands of unidentified migrants and appalling conditions Migrants in the camps live in squalid conditions. Tents and rudimentary shacks are scattered on land owned by local residents. For their temporary shelters, they have used what was available to them in the form of tarpaulins, olive branches and straw, as well as agricultural and plastic tools intended for irrigation and the construction of air-conditioned agricultural houses, which have been destroyed or sold to them by some "profiteers" of their presence. The TAP team of journalists visited Sfax to investigate the phenomenon of irregular migration and went to the areas of El Amra and Jebeniana, where they "explored" the shelters and informal camps that house tens of thousands of migrants and surround the belts of El Amra, a small town near the beaches of El Aouabed, known for the activity of "harga" (irregular migration). According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the number of migrants settled in El Amra and Jebeniana does not exceed 7,000, but all those interviewed by the TAP team, including residents of El Amra and local civil society activists, estimated the number to be many times higher. It could be as high as 25,000, not including new births, the y said. Brigadier General Houssem Eddine Jebabli, spokesman for the General Directorate of the National Guard, confirmed in an exclusive interview with TAP that the number of irregular migrants cannot be accurately counted. On the other hand, Jababli confirmed that from the beginning of the year until May 9, more than 21,500 sub-Saharan migrants had been arrested or seen attempting to cross the land or sea borders illegally. The beneficiaries ... the victims! Ezzeddine Abid, a resident of the village of Hmayzia, spoke to TAP with regret and confusion about the damage caused to him and his family by the proliferation of migrant camps near his village and the dangers to which they are exposed. I can no longer use my land and the land of my brothers, I can no longer lead a normal life, pursue my hobby and travel to the capital to follow my favourite team,' he said. I take care of my house and look after my family, and I rarely leave Hmayzia unless absolutely necessary," he continues. The population of the village does not exceed 700 people, while the camps around the village are filled with thousands of foreign migrants. Along the road leading to Hmayzia, sub-Saharan migrants are scattered along the road, selling second-hand clothes and fricassé (a local snack), and some of them even buy shops and businesses from some residents at double the usual prices,' a number of residents told TAP. A parliamentary delegation that had previously visited the El Amra and Jebeniana districts revealed that the National Guard Centre in El Amra receives an average of 20 complaints a day from local citizens about public and private attacks by irregular migrants. The village bakeries used to produce 700 loaves of bread a day, enough for the entire population of Hmayzia, but with the increasing number of migrants, at least 7,000 loaves are needed,' said Ezzeddine Abid. Where are the almond trees? There is not a single almond in dozens of fruit trees, they have been eaten or destroyed,' he said. The migrants use the branches of these trees to keep warm in winter and love to eat them when they are hungry. In one of the 'Hmayzia' camps, Ivorian youth 'Bousila', who spoke to the TAP team, made an open appeal to everyone: 'We are harassed everywhere, isn't it enough for them to plunder our countries? We will go to Europe, no matter what it costs. The young Ivorian then turned to the TAP journalists and said: 'Can you tolerate living in the open air in the olive groves? We can't tolerate it either, but most of us are determined to emigrate.' Mohamed Ben Farah, a civil society activist in El Amra, spoke of a change in people's attitudes to the situation. He said that the doubling of the number of migrants and the tendency of some of them to resort to violence, vandalism, crime and the destruction of crops, equipment and agricultural tools had made those who were 'comfortable' with their presence withdraw and cry out for help. Zouheir Ben Jannet, a sociology professor at the Faculty of Arts in Sfax, told TAP that the situation has cha nged due to the increase in the number of irregular migrants in El Amra and Jebeniana and the growing tension between them and the local population. He said that the destruction of their camps and their removal by the security forces was not the most effective solution, but that a radical solution to the phenomenon should be found. Absence of international and aid organisations In April, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Tunisia, in cooperation with the Tunisian Red Crescent, distributed food baskets to 7,000 migrants in Sfax, but this was one of the few visits by international organisations to the region. Contrary to what has been reported in local and international media, Sierra Leonean Haji, the official spokesman for the Henchir Ben Farhat camp, says they have not received any aid or been contacted by any organisation in the years he has lived in the camp. On Sunday morning, Abdu Afas was walking along the road to Sfax, like dozens of other sub-Saharan Africans who crossed paths w ith the TAP team. He is used to walking hundreds of kilometres, having set off from Burkina Faso to reach Tunisia via the Libyan border. Afas', a Burkinabe, said that he did not have a passport and that he had left his family behind in search of a better life', adding that he wanted to emigrate to Italy and that in the meantime he was working in olive picking and other jobs for 20 dinars a day. Haji, who was 'appointed' by more than a thousand migrants to speak on their behalf, stressed that they wanted to go to Italy and were not asking for anything else, and called on the Tunisian authorities to 'open the sea in front of us'. On the other hand, the Tunisian authorities have confirmed that many irregular sub-Saharan migrants have approached several security headquarters, requesting the intervention of migration organisations in Tunisia in order to be deported to their home countries. Some 2,500 foreign migrants have voluntarily returned to their countries since the beginning of the year, according to a statement from the Directorate General of the National Guard, which stressed that the last voluntary return flight was on May 9 by airline to an African country, with 166 irregular migrants on board. In the fishing port of Sfax, coastal patrol vessels from the Central Region of the Tunisian National Coast Guard return daily with hundreds of irregular sub-Saharan migrants on board, after thwarting their attempts to migrate clandestinely to the shores of Italy in primitive "death boats". The migrants line up at the port, guarded by National Guard patrols, before being transferred by bus to destinations that are almost certainly not the ones they had dreamed of. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse