These Are the Reasons Why Famous Tunisians Risk Their Lives?

While the stifling economic crisis is crushing the middle class that struggles to make ends meet, smugglers' business of illegal immigration, from Tunisia to the European coasts across the Mediterranean, is booming.

The recent growing migration processes are no longer confined to the youth or the poor but have become a phenomenon that includes football players and successful people as well.

According to the Times, debt-laden Tunisia has been negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for weeks to obtain a new $4 billion loan, which brings possibilities for obtaining other loans from the international market at lower interest rates.

 

Successful & Football Players

The irregular migration surge in Tunisia has reached successful people and promising footballers despite their prosperous future in their country.

Ali Chalabi, 18, a football goalkeeper at the Tunisian International team, took the risk of illegally immigrating to Italy.

"I was praying to God throughout the trip, but I was not afraid," Chalbi told The Times after arriving in Italy, where he now hopes to play for an Italian team.

The goalkeeper of the Tunisian national youth team and CS Sfaxien crossed the border stealthily to Italy, accompanied by a group of young people, and it was confirmed that he had safely arrived at Lampedusa.

The Tunisian goalkeeper left Tunisia illegally after obtaining his baccalaureate certificate at the end of the last academic year.

CS Sfaxien had even congratulated Ali Chalabi on the club's official page on Facebook.

This incident is the first of its kind for an active football player in a Tunisian team.

Ali posted a picture of him on a boat on his Facebook account, accompanied by a number of passers-by, the moment he arrived at Lampedusa.

For some time, Tunisia has witnessed an increase in illegal immigration towards European coasts, which has raised the concern of the Tunisian authorities, desperately trying to limit the use of their shores to migrate towards Europe.

 

Zied Mallouli

Having close ties with the goalkeeper, the professor, initiator of the national citizen movement "Sayeb Etrottoir," and civil society activist, Zied Mallouli, said in his interview with Al-Estiklal, that Ali Chalbi had been trying hard to get his visa to travel to Italy legally, but his request met with a refusal.

"Ali got a contract offer to sign with an Italian club, but he couldn't get his visa. Everyone, even his family, encouraged him to take the risk and illegally travel to Italy; our son arrived, and he is fine, thank God, but hundreds of our children died or went missing."

Zied added, "many like Ali believe that Europe's future is better than ours [in Tunisia]."

The Tunisian activist preferred not to mention names. Still, he stressed that famous and successful people chose to flee illegally because of the economic crisis that hit their businesses and companies.

"Rich people also suffer from the current situation. Some are in jail, and others flee on boats."

Zied said, "it is hard to say that, but Tunisia is passing through a serious dilemma."

 

Economic Crisis, Again?

The Tunisian economy's collapse is not new, as the country has not escaped the cycle of gradual deterioration of the economic and social situation since the fall of the Ben Ali regime in January 2011.

However, the country reached an unprecedented crisis recently, which it had not witnessed over the past years, after President Kais Saied's announcement of exceptional measures on July 25, 2021.

The Tunisian government is increasingly unable to pay state employees' salaries on time.

In addition to the lack of basic materials, prices witnessed a significant increase, and the inflation rate reached 6.4% in July 2021 and jumped to 8.2% this year, according to official statistics published by the National Institute of Statistics in Tunisia.

The authorities in Tunisia announced, on Tuesday, August 9, that they had formally ratified, by presidential decree, a loan agreement with the World Bank, worth 130 million US dollars, to finance the urgent intervention project for food security and to provide mainly grain and bread, as contained in the agreement.

Another reason which seems "fresh" is that Italy has started encouraging irregular migrants to come and stopped taking them back to their countries.

According to Zied, there are plans to recruit them to fight for Ukraine, especially the youth.

The Italian authorities even soften procedures for ease of movement in the country.

"The Italian Coast Guard meets the migrants at sea with happy faces and unusual hospitality, which, of course, increases the illegal migration rate. Tunisians are being encouraged every day to leave the country. Tunisia has never witnessed such a wave that was fueled by new reasons; the economic crisis is no longer the main motive," Zied concluded.