Migrant workers gamble with their lives to escape Libyan violence

In the Tunisian fishing town of Medenine, migrants describe being rescued from sinking vessels as they tried to make the perilous journey from Libya to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Italian coastguard personnel carry the body of a dead migrant off their ship in Valletta's Grand Harbour on April 20, 2015. More than 800 migrants are believed to have died after their boat capsized iShow more

MEDENINE, TUNISIA // The inflatable boat they were packed into had started taking in water dangerously less than 24 hours after leaving the Libyan port of Zuwara, recalled the young Nigerians chatting in the chilly spring sunshine in Medenine, not far from Tunisia’s Mediterranean coast.

“People were panicking. That’s when we lost hope. People were shouting out, weeping even,” said one young man from Edo state, southern Nigeria, who declined to give his name as he recounted that fateful day on April 15.

Unlike the nearly 1,800 people who are believed to have drowned in the Mediterranean this year, those travelling on that sinking boat were lucky: they were spotted early the next morning by a fishing fleet from the Tunisian port of Zarzis and all survived.

A larger boat that left Libya last week was not so fortunate. More than 800 people are believed to have drowned when it sank on Sunday. Only 28 survived.

The tragedy, considered by the UN to be the worst such incident ever in the Mediterranean, has prompted renewed and increasingly urgent debate on the European Union’s response to the rapidly rising death toll of migrants trying to make the crossing from the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean.

The informal job market in Libya has long offered relatively well-paid opportunities – at up to US$30 (Dh110) a day for semi-skilled workers such as electricians – for migrants from West Africa, since before the revolution that overthrew the regime of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. However the growing instability in Libya means that Europe now beckons strongly, despite the risks.

“It’s a suicide mission” to board one of these poorly-maintained inflatable craft, said the young Nigerian.

The dilapidated vessel he was travelling on had a faltering motor and was being skippered by a fellow migrant who had no maritime experience. He relied on a simple compass given to him by the Libyan people smugglers.

The 98 people on board included 65 Nigerians, and eight women and two toddlers, according to the Tunisian Red Crescent.

Along with a second boat that had left at the same time, with 86 people on board, it had been heading for the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily.

Working as a car mechanic, the young Nigerian had saved up the 1,200 Libyan dinars (Dh3,220) needed for a place on the boat. He had hoped to continue his business administration studies in Europe.

Some of the Nigerian migrants housed in temporary Red Crescent accommodation in Medenine cited the presence of Boko Haram radicals in the north of their country as influencing their decision to leave, in addition to a lack of jobs. Goodwin Eze, 25, from Kano state in northern Nigeria, said Boko Haram had been uncomfortably close to his home town.

In Libya he found work washing cars, while his wife, Joy Eze, 20, worked as a housemaid.

Like other young migrants, the couple said they might now consider accepting voluntary repatriation, in a scheme operated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). But they dread the idea of returning home with empty pockets.

So far this year, 352 migrants in four boats have been rescued off the Tunisian coast, the IOM reports. That is a sharp increase compared with 590 people in six boats for the whole of last year, and a similar number in 2013.

Last year, almost half of those rescued accepted voluntary repatriation to their home countries, especially to Nigeria. In 2013, only 169 took up the offer.

In Tunisia, migrants are not detained, and some find work locally, although the wages in Medenine are a third lower than in Libya.

Others slip back into Libya, to try again. Mohammed Saikou, a soft-spoken 20-year-old from Gambia, was rescued and brought ashore at Zarzis for a second time on April 13, after a first unsuccessful attempt to reach Europe the previous month.

Libya, where he picked up wiring jobs as an electrician, is an increasingly stressful environment, he said.

The promised pay does not always materialise. On one occasion, the man contracting him disputed the rate and forced him to work a full day for no pay, with an AK-47 rifle held over him.

Other migrants report similar treatment.

“You don’t feel comfortable to stay in that country. People look down at you, some even cover their nose as they pass you in the street,” he added.

At Zarzis fishing port, the fishermen regard their sea rescues as a humanitarian duty.

Harbourmaster Saleh Qadri recalls the first person they rescued – a young man brought ashore in the summer of 2012.

The following year, two women died due to the extreme conditions as their vessel had drifted for days without food and water. But several hundred migrants have been saved by the Zarzis Coast Guard since 2012.

Port officials are now resigned to seeing more such rescues this year as people smugglers in neighbouring Libya continue to exploit the deteriorating security there.