Jonas spent more than a year trying to reach Tunisia after escaping ethnic violence in his native Nigeria, but rising anti-migrant sentiment and a government crackdown in the North African country have left him without help.

Speaking under a pseudonym for fear of expulsion, Jonas said he crossed through Niger and Libya to escape attacks on his Igbo ethnic group.

Upon arriving in Tunis last November, where his wife gave birth to their first child, they were met with a frozen asylum system and an official clampdown on migrant aid organisations.

"I have no assistance here," said Jonas, 48, standing before a vast stretch of land in Raoued, north of the capital Tunis, where he hunts for plastic waste to make a living.

"I heard that the United Nations had more power here, that they took care of migrants," he added. "But I didn't find anyone, so I carry my cross."

Tunisia is a key transit country for thousands of sub-Saharan migrants seeking to reach Europe by sea each year.

In 2023, President Kais Saied said "hordes of illegal migrants" posed a demographic threat to Arab-majority Tunisia.

The speech triggered a series of racially motivated attacks with many sub-Saharan migrants chased........

© Al Monitor