Inhabiting humanitarian borderscapes: claiming rights and organizing dissent in post-2011 southeastern Tunisia

Abstract

Since 2011, the evolving dynamics of the Libyan civil war combined with the EU’s efforts to delegate sea patrolling in the Central Mediterranean to Libyan entities, resulted in Tunisia witnessing a surge in border crossings through Libya. This article argues that southeastern Tunisia consequently morphed into a humanitarian borderscape, where the personnel of International Organizations and their partner NGOs entrusted with the assistance and protection of mobile populations, de facto contributed to border enforcement. Based on interviews and informal conversations conducted in 2018 and 2019 with Tunisian NGOs, local institutional actors, national and international activists, refugees, asylum seekers, and irregularized migrants, this contribution demonstrates how such a metamorphosis impacted spontaneous solidarity networks that emerged post-2011. It also illuminates tensions and disruptions experienced by both borderland citizens and displaced individuals, particularly from Northeast Africa, as they negotiate an active presence within these altered border dynamics.