Reasons Why Dozens of Tunisian Youth Celebrated Reopening Borders With Libya

With the 2011 uprisings, trade relations between Tunisia and Libya faltered. Again, in 2014 when internal conflicts in Libya increased, these relations were getting worse and worse which automatically enacted strict measures at the borders. This further impinged the economy of Tunisia’s eastern borderlands, which had relied on importing cheap goods from Libya for many years. In addition, Ras Ajdir and Dhehiba crossing borders are a matter of life for young Tunisians who chose to work in Libya for more than two decades.

This time, because of COVID-19 pandemic and the dangerous situation in the Tunisian country, Libya had decided to close the borders between the two countries and suspend all kinds of commercial exchanges through the borders. It even suspended its flights to Tunisia for more than two months. Accordingly, this had affected widely economic movement and had negative impacts on the Tunisian youth. However, after meetings between health teams of the two countries, the borders were reopened again on September 17, 2021, and hundreds of Tunisians went back to Libyan job markets.

 

Rejoining Job Market

It was good news for Tunisians in general and young Tunisians in particular to reopen Tunisian-Libyan Ras Ajdir and Dhehiba borders again. Actually, these crossing borders do represent a “life vein” for their future. For a long time, “informal trade agreements led to a tight-knit economy” along the border between Tunisia and Libya.

In addition to Tunisian traders who celebrated the cross-border reopening, young Tunisian who work in Libya, as it is an oil-rich North African neighbor, regained their jobs and families. 

According to Tunisian Agency for Employment and General Directorate of Consular Affairs, more than 90,000 Tunisians live and work in Libya despite the 2011 uprising. Mohammed Feki, a Tunisian Engineer, told Al-Estiklal that he made the best choice to move and work in Libya. 

“I believe that the Libyan economy is expected to rebound in 2021 by 62.5% due to a significant increase in oil production and exports. When I came here in 2018 [to Libya], Libyans were working hard, it was clear that they really wanted their country to be developed and progressed,” Mohammed said.

“My conditions and salary were much better than in Tunisia. I love my country and I still have work there, but the future is here. When the borders were closed, I did not give up, I travelled by plane, stopping at Turkey for a couple of hours, then continuing to Libya. 

I believe that the number of young Tunisians, who chose Libya for their future work, will get higher and higher in the next few months, especially after the election in December,” added the young engineer. 

 

Re-opening Borders

On September 16, 2021, Kais Saied, the Tunisian President, ordered the border with Libya to reopen, according to his office’s official Twitter account.

Two months ago, and due to the explosion of COVID-19 cases in Tunisia, Libya had to shut its land border and suspended flights between the two countries.

After the Libyan officials’ decision, some Tunisians, especially young workers, were not able to join their families in Tunisia. Others were stuck in border crossings for days and could not even sleep or eat.

But with the COVID-19 rapidly dropping, the two countries decided to reopen the shared-borders “after Libyan transitional Prime Minister Abdelhamid Debeibeh met Tunisian President Kais Saied in Tunis on September 9.”

Ras Ajdir border represents “the main crossing between Libya and Tunisia, and both sides rely heavily on cross-border trade including smuggling.”

Not only Tunisians prefer Libya as a key destination, the Libyan people also usually come to Tunisia especially for medical treatment and tourism, given that Tunisia is one of the few countries that allow Libyans to enter the country with no visa.

After the reopening, both countries “agreed on a stringent health protocol subject to revision in light of developments in the health situation in the two countries.”

Those who cross the borders, including children, “are required to be fully vaccinated against Covid and must provide a negative PCR test or face hotel quarantine.”

 

Seeking a Better Future 

With the changing security conditions in Libya, Libyan youth have become more concerned about unemployment and job opportunities in order to develop their country. In doing so, these opportunities attracted Tunisians so the number of Tunisian job-seekers, the youth in particular, increased compared to previous years. According to the Spark study report that was published in August 2018, the work team “aims to monitor the reasons behind the rising numbers of job-seekers in the Libyan job market.” According to the report, “there is clear misuse and wasting of human power in Libya.”

In addition, the December elections could push and encourage those job-seekers to come and look for a better future in the “new Libya” as some of them say.

Last but not least, oil is still the strongest cause to encourage Tunisians to choose Libya as a future destination. “It is known that an oil-rich country such as Libya has an oil-dependent economy. Oil was initially discovered in Libya in 1958 and production started in 1961, constituting about 94% of the country’s resources,” according to the same report. “It enjoys highly productive wells and closeness to exporting ports. The Libyan economy was formed after independence and the formation of the Libyan state. With the discovery of oil and the initiation of exporting activities, the Libyan economy witnessed a noticeable boom.”