One-month-old Ishmael knows nothing beyond a scrappy migrant camp in Tunis, its makeshift tents, buttressed with plastic bags, offering respite from a scorching August sun.
"Hush, hush," a resident tells the wailing infant, as Ishmael's mother Edna Kemorsay spreads a soothing ointment on him."This country is not easy to live in," said Kemorsay, from Sierra Leone, who crossed the Sahara desert heavily pregnant, hoping to use coastal Tunisia as a springboard to Italy."We just go out to the streets to beg for food."
"We want our agreement with Tunisia to be a template. A blueprint for the future," said European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen of a deal that sees Tunisia receiving $109 million in EU funds to fight illegal migration -- with similar agreements anticipated with Egypt and Morocco. "We send young people to Europe; Italy sends us its retirees," Talbi said of the expatriates in coastal towns."It needs to be seen in this angle as well."
The European Union's executive arm did not respond to VOA requests for comment. For their part, Tunisian authorities have denied carrying out collective expulsions or other mistreatment -- while adding the best option for undocumented migrants is going home.
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