TUNIS — Jamila, a Sudanese migrant in Tunisia, needs urgent uterine surgery, but lacks the money to pay for the surgery but also proper shelter for her recovery after the procedure.
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“Will I return from the hospital to the tent, which lacks the simplest conditions for recovery?” asks Jamila, who was among the many asylum seekers protesting outside of the UNHCR office in Tunis, the capital city, before security forces dispersed them.
Jamaila, her husband and their five children fled the Sudanese civil war and arrived in the Tunisian capital (via Libya) in April. Since then, they’ve been sheltering with other homeless migrants in an encampment that has been outside of the UNHCR office since the beginning of 2024. More than 50 migrants, including women and children, used one bathroom in a public park close to the nearby office of the International Organization for Migration.
What’s the UN’s responsibility?
In recent years, Tunisia has become a major transit point for migrants fleeing conflicts and poverty in Africa and the Middle East for better lives in Europe. Hundreds of thousands of migrants are in limbo in Tunisia, where migrant women lack basic rights including sexual and reproductive health services. According to the UNHCR, there are 18,362 refugees and asylum seekers in Tunisia, including 3,388 women. Sudanese are on top of the list of refugees and asylum seekers, followed by Syrian, Ivorian, Somali, and Cameroonian.
Jamila criticized the UNHCR, saying the agency didn’t provide healthcare for refugees and asylum seekers. “It closes its doors. No one visits us, and no doctor has visited us since we arrived in the capital. We cannot talk about the health of women and girls in particular, in the absence of health follow-up for refugees and asylum seekers in general,” she said.
The support and solidarity among refugees is much greater than the support they receive from organizations.
Amna, a 27-year-old Sudanese asylum seeker, was with Jamila at the encampment recalled a woman who went into labor while she was working as a street vendor. A Tunisian man took the woman to the hospital. She and her baby were then moved to a hostel but were kicked out a few days later because she did not have the money. The woman tried to contact the UNHCR — in vain.
Another Sudanese woman, who arrived in Tunisia along with her husband and their three daughters, was pregnant and had a miscarriage a few days after she arrived in Medenine, in southern Tunisia. The 31-year-old woman didn’t seek treatment at hospital because she did not have the money or identification documents required to have a “medical card” from the UNHCR.
The UNHCR office in Tunis did not respond to requests for comment.
Deprived of healthcare
Most Sudanese migrants do not have identification documents, and therefore do not have access to healthcare services in Tunisia’s public hospitals.
An official with the Tunisian Association for Reproductive Health, a non-profit group that provides aid to migrants, spoke on condition of anonymity. Tunisians themselves lack healthcare services, and many migrants in remote areas, where access to healthcare is extremely limited, the official said, adding that language is another factor, as well as how-to-reach health groups.
“The support and solidarity among refugees is much greater than the support they receive from organizations, especially UNHCR,” Amna said.
The already dire conditions of women refugees and asylum seekers in Tunisia have recently deteriorated amid an official anti-immigrant campaign, said Ramadan Ben Omar, spokesman for the Tunisian Forum for Economic Rights. He said in a statement that the group has received repeated calls from pregnant migrants and women who have just given birth seeking medical help.
We don’t want to stay in Tunisia. We are in danger and no one pays attention to us.
“They are deprived of their most basic rights, including their right to reproductive and sexual health,” he said. “Pregnant women refugees are also exposed to violence by the refugee community itself. They live in harsh and humiliating living conditions.”
The United Nations expressed concerns about pushing migrants to the borders with Libya and Algeria, where many, including women and children, have died in the desert after spending days in the burning summer sun without food or water.
Amna said they want to be relocated to other countries where living conditions are better. “We don’t want to stay in Tunisia,” she said. “We are in danger and no one pays attention to us.”
