In the back room of a smoke-filled cafe in the Tunisian city of Sfax, the tension was unbearable.
Assisted by a local fixer called Ali, the Guardian was interviewing Joseph, a 21-year-old Kenyan migrant, who said he had been beaten repeatedly by the country’s national guard.
Outside, a friend of Ali’s acted as a lookout for police: black people were banned from Sfax’s coffee shops. If we were caught, Joseph risked torture, the owner faced arrest. Ali and I would be taken for questioning, almost certainly detention.
Then Ali’s phone rang. He glanced at the number; colour drained from his face. It rang again. Ali seemed short of breath. “It was a trap,” Ali said. A voice note confirmed his worst fears. “The secret police from Tunis are on to us.”
Two hours earlier we had arranged to meet another fixer near El Amra, a town north of Sfax, where thousands of migrants hoping to reach Europe were trapped by police. El Amra is surrounded by police checkpoints with orders to apprehend journalists. Unfazed, Ali said we should pretend we were tourists heading for a nearby beach. I got cold feet, deciding the risk was too high.
Now it was evident the fixer had informed the police about us. When we hadn’t showed, officers began hunting us. Confirmation came from our lookout who raced inside after receiving a message. “They’re looking for two locals and a European journalist.”
We wrapped up the interview, left and agreed to go our separate ways. I headed downtown, sweating in 35C heat, eyes fixed on the pavement, paranoia building.
Back at the hotel, I tried to contact Ali and our look out. Whatsapp messages were greeted with a single grey tick. Calls went straight to answerphone.
Seven hours later, long after nightfall, Ali reappeared. He had made contact with an Ivorian woman recently sexually assaulted by the national guard and wanted to meet at a nearby cafe. “Be careful.”
It emerged that police had tracked down many of Ali’s friends; somehow he had evaded arrest. Indeed, he had doubled down, locating migrants brave enough to speak to the Guardian.
Ali was desperate for our readers to learn what was happening in Sfax, to know that Tunisia’s national guard – security forces funded by the European Union - were raping large numbers of vulnerable migrant women.
Unlike me, Ali did not have the option of fleeing abroad once the interviews were done. Having left, it was decided my report would be published anonymously to help protect Ali.
Not that bylines matter. As always, the only individuals who count are those that feature in the journalism itself. And of course the brave, often brilliant, fixers like Ali who risked his freedom so you, too, would know the dreadful secrets about the country he reveres.
A Guardian reporter, Global development |
