LA LOUZA — About 30 kilometers north of the Tunisian city of Sfax, the entrance to the small fishing port of La Louza offers a singular spectacle: dozens of crushed or holed metal boats are piled up on the seawall.
In the middle of the port, at the National Guard posting, agents are examining a maritime radar. The local commander declined to make “any comment.” For their part, the fishermen of La Louza are adamant: these are the boats used by migrants to cross the Mediterranean, which are intercepted and then destroyed by law enforcement so they can’t be reused.
Indeed, similar debris litters the coastline north of Sfax, left in ruin at the very spot where they were intercepted. On the beach, the residents of La Louza we spoke to said they knew nothing about the origin of these metal boats. Confidential documents and communications from the European External Action Service (EEAS) nevertheless provide some insight into how significant this type of boat is in Europe-bound migratory flows leaving Tunisia.
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Classified as a “sensitive document,” a European Commission report dated October 2024 on migration patterns in the Central Mediterranean states that “artisanal metal boats remain the main means of transport on this corridor” as it is used in approximately 50% of crossings.
“We have observed the use of this type of vessel becoming widespread since the summer of 2022,” explains Sophie-Anne Bisiaux, a researcher and member of the Alarm Phone project, which monitors and alerts on incidents involving migrants in the Mediterranean.
This information is corroborated by a memo from the EEAS, which detected the presence of metal boats for the first time “on the Tunisian corridor” in August 2022. Bisiaux considers these metal boats to be “dangerous vessels” and “prone to shipwrecks” — an observation supported by confidential EEAS documents and by testimonies of migrants. Yet, nothing seems to be able to stop their use.
A disorganized production network
Further inland, Sub-Saharan Africans expelled from Sfax during the riots of summer 2023 have found refuge in the olive groves. The camps set up along the Mahdia road (C82) are named after the kilometer markers at which they are positioned. One of these camps, located in the El-Amra delegation, is known as “a starting point for further journeys.” Hundreds of Sub-Saharan Africans have just spent the winter there in makeshift tents and are preparing to set sail. Behind the camp, a dozen metal boats lie on the ground, completely crushed.
“The National Guard did this; they came with a big excavator,” explains one of the camp residents, who requested anonymity.
He says the demolition operation took place “several months ago.” Since then, the migrants have been storing the boats elsewhere. Few of them are willing to reveal how the vessels are built.
“These metal boats, which are made of thin iron plates joined together, are a response to recent raids on wooden boat factories,” says Sophie-Anne Bisiaux. In December 2023, an internal memo from Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, explained that the average length of this type of boat is seven meters (23 ft.) and that the average number of migrants on board is 41.
“We see this in other regions such as the English Channel: when the authorities target so-called ‘smugglers,’ it is the migrants who pay the consequences,” says the researcher.
The boats’ quality has deteriorated with the criminalization of the workshops and the manufacturers
A Guinean migrant familiar with the different methods to cross the Mediterranean explains that it is necessary to “make several calls to obtain the metal, then to assemble it, and to have the boat delivered to ‘your home’.” Far from the cliché of organized and autonomous smuggling networks, the production of metal boats appears to be the responsibility of a significant number of intermediaries, both Tunisian and sub-Saharan.
The manufacturing sites for metal boats are not necessarily located in the migrants’ departure areas. Last November, police discovered a workshop run by sub-Saharan individuals in the Tunis suburb of Raoued. One of the fishermen from La Louza also assures that “the boats are brought in by truck from the city of Monastir at night.”
Bisiaux explains that the boats’ quality has deteriorated with the criminalization of the workshops and the manufacturers. “The vessels are now being built in a hurry and with poor quality materials.”
Capsize risks for migrants and rescue teams
Joël* is a young man from Cameroon who arrived in Tunisia via the Algerian border in June 2024. At the end of October, the 20-year-old went to the migrant camps set up in El-Amra to take part in “a movement”: an attempt to cross the Mediterranean to the Italian island of Lampedusa. The convoy departed in the middle of the night, from a beach near La Louza. The organizers, migrants who were also taking part in the journey, had the passengers board a boat about 5 or 6 meters long, explains Joël.
“We went into the water, there were 80 people on the boat, with a 75-horsepower engine… So, before we even left, the boat was filling with water! Then all of sudden the police arrived,” he recalls. According to the young man, this type of incident “happens almost all the time” with metal boats.
“They are very unstable and can easily fill with water and capsize at any moment,” confirms Sophie-Anne Bisiaux. The researcher points out that the vessels also pose a risk to rescue teams “due to their instability and sharp edges, which can damage the inflatable tubes of Zodiacs.”
In December 2023, in an internal “analytical warning” memo, Frontex agents already noted that “the use of artisanal metal boats increases the likelihood of accidents.” Among the factors cited, the European coast guards mention “insufficient buoyancy” and “ passenger overload.”
Despite these risks, metal boats already accounted for 77% of Mediterranean crossings in 2023, according to a statistic reported in several EEAS documents. Above all, the European services have repeatedly noted that the passengers on these boats are “mainly sub-Saharan nationals.”
Cost reduction and European responsibility
Most native Tunisian migrants, for their part, continue to use boats made of wood or fiberglass, like traditional fishing boats. In the El-Amra camp, an Ivorian migrant who spent several months in Tripoli also says that he had “never seen metal boats in Libya.” The internal Frontex memo of December 2023 notes the increased use of “large fishing boats” for crossings, which are much less prone to shipwrecks.
Sources also all agree on one thing: if sub-Saharan Africans now use metal boats, it is largely because of their low price.
The criminalization of Black migrant populations and the risk of deportation force them to live in hiding, deprived of economic resources.
Between December 2023 and October 2024, several EEAS documents give a range of “€300 to €800” or “€350 to €900” (between $341 and $1,023) for a place on a boat from the Sfax region. Joël even explains that “prices start at 500 dinars ($168) and usually don’t exceed 1,500 ($503).”
“The Tunisian corridor continues to attract sub-Saharan migrants, largely because smugglers can offer low crossing fees by using artisanal metal boats,” explains the aforementioned October 2024 European Commission report.
For a ticket to Europe, it may seem like a paltry amount. However, it’s actually “very difficult and long” to raise such a sum, says Joël.
Sophie-Anne Bisiaux emphasizes that sub-Saharan Africans in Tunisia are being kept “in very precarious economic situations,” particularly since February 2023 and the outbreak of “xenophobic policies and racist practices” in Tunisia. These include eviction from homes, job losses, blocking of international transfers, and the impossibility of regularizing their situation. The researcher points out that “the criminalization of Black migrant populations and the risk of deportation force them to live in hiding, deprived of economic resources.”
Sophie-Anne Bisiaux and the Alarm Phone project also denounce the increased crackdowns targeting smugglers: “They have become a real obsession of European countries in recent years.”
European reports also repeatedly say that the “preventive efforts” and “security campaigns” carried out by the Tunisian authorities have helped reduce the waves of departures from Sfax between 2023 and 2024. But they don’t mention the fact that these operations also cause the deterioration in transport conditions for migrants in the Mediterranean.
“After more than 20 years of repressive policies against supposed ‘smugglers’ and the explosion in deaths at the borders, no one can ignore the fact that, far from protecting them, these policies are actually worsening the situation of exiled people,” says Sophie-Anne Bisiaux.
*Names have been changed.
