At last month’s Venice film festival, a fictional portrayal of African migrants seeking to reach Europe received widespread acclaim. Me, Captain charts the journey of two Senegalese teenagers as they navigate violence, extortion, detention and forced labour at the hands of corrupt police and traffickers in north Africa. It won a Silver Lion and standing ovations.
The movie is at times a heartbreaking watch. But Guardian reporting from Tunisia suggests that the reality is – if anything – grimmer, and that Europe is deeply complicit in the horror that is unfolding. In July, the European Union signed an agreement promising a substantial cheque to Tunisia’s authoritarian leader, Kais Saied, in exchange for a crackdown on irregular migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Italy. According to testimony from migrants and NGOs on the ground, the result has been the brutal pushback, abuse and intimidation of sub-Saharan African migrants.
