{"id":645,"date":"2024-04-10T18:56:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T16:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidoni.org\/?p=645"},"modified":"2024-04-10T18:56:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T16:56:05","slug":"they-were-scared-so-ive-decided-to-shut-up-says-eleonore-ple-about-interviewing-exiles-in-tunisia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/?p=645","title":{"rendered":"‘They were scared. So, I’ve decided to shut up’, says El\u00e9onore Pl\u00e9 about interviewing exiles in Tunisia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

After spending months in routes used by people in exile in the Balkans in 2022, Specto\u2019s El\u00e9onore Pl\u00e9 wanted to see with her own eyes the conditions of people from sub-Saharan Africa crossing into Tunisia with the hope of reaching Europe. \u201cIt is about the people, not numbers\u201d, she says, in this interview about her project \u2018Tunisia – Land of Passage\u2019, supported by aid\u00f3ni<\/strong>.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By Rogerio Simoes (edited by M\u00e9line Laffabry)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThis is the main subject of today, the main subject of this century.\u201d This is how French journalist El\u00e9onore Pl\u00e9, the founder and director of Specto Media<\/a>, explains why she chose to focus on migration in her most recent editorial projects – and she is not exaggerating. The movement of people, mostly from parts of the world facing violent conflicts, environmental disasters, and extreme poverty towards richer nations in the globe\u2019s Northern Hemisphere, is defining the 21st century. In June 2023, the United Nations (UN) recorded 110 million<\/a> displaced people worldwide. A new record…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El\u00e9onore wanted to help change the way this momentous subject is portrayed and discussed, especially in the countries where the exiles arrive at the end of their journey. This is why she went to Tunisia, a country used by people of other African origins as a basis from which they try to reach Europe.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her main goal was to tell human stories, to seek to understand the motivations behind the departures, and to shed light on the realities of the journey towards a hoped-for better future. \u201cFor me, it was a way of creating a new narrative, a new way to tell those stories\u201d, she said in a conversation with aid\u00f3ni<\/strong>. \u201cThere is a lot of disinformation, a lot of fear around this subject, and deshumanisation [of people in exile].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If each migration story is unique and results from a multitude of factors, El\u00e9onore explains that exploring this subject necessarily means investigating oppression, even if it manifests in different forms. \u201cFor me, it was a way of understanding oppression better. When you work with migration, you can cover sexual oppression, economic oppression, political oppression. That\u2019s why there is a strong link between migration and human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The railway crossing the city of Sbe\u00eftla, about a hundred kilometers from the Algerian border.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about the people\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Eleon\u00f3re’s trip to Tunisia and its borders became Specto\u2019s project \u201cTunisia, Land of Passage\u201d, produced alongside aid\u00f3ni<\/strong>. With so many numbers, graphics, and theories about migration from Africa already produced, promoted, and analysed, El\u00e9onore focused on human stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about the people, not numbers, experts,\u201d she says. \u201cI wanted to go back to the basics, to tell people\u2019s stories. We don\u2019t usually hear those people. When people speak about migration, they always speak about politics, economics, numbers, but almost never listening to the people. When they do, it\u2019s not in a good way, it\u2019s through a narrative of crisis, catastrophe.\u201d After people\u2019s voices are properly heard, she says, the numbers, the context, and other views are added to complement the editorial content she produces around the subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between November 2021 and March 2022, El\u00e9onore travelled through several countries in the B\u00e1lkans to explore the conditions in which people were moving with the dream of a life in the European Union in their heads. The harsh conditions, particularly at the borders between countries such as Bulgaria and Turkey or Serbia and Hungary, made her want to discover more about the people who decide to attempt a journey to Europe despite the numerous dangers they encounter on their journey. Her attention then turned to Tunisia.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, this North African country serves as an informal gateway to Europe for many African exiles. Despite the increasing difficulty of crossing its borders, numerous sub-Saharan individuals take their chances with the aim of reaching the Mediterranean. The political and economic motivations behind the closure of Tunisian borders, as well as their financing, are more complex than they may seem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her trip to Tunisia, in August 2023, included different stages of any migrant\u2019s journey from that part of the world towards Europe. At the country\u2019s border with Algeria, she witnessed the struggles, distress, and fatigue of those who had already travelled thousands of miles, from countries such as Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Sierra Leone, and had just managed to enter a new phase of their perilous journeys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Silent questioning<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n
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With her friend and fixer Amin, whom she had met during her trip in the Balkans while he was working to document pushbacks at the border between Greece and Turkey, she first tried to get close to the border with Libya. That goal proved too dangerous, so she headed towards Algeria, focusing on that border instead – \u201ca bit easier\u201d, as El\u00e9onore describes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was where she met the focus of her journalistic enterprise: the people dreaming of a life in Europe, escaping violence, persecution, and destitution. \u201cIt was very emotional, very hard, to meet people at the border with Algeria who had just crossed. Some of them had no shoes, water, women were alone with their babies, their children.\u201d People refrained from speaking, opting to walk silently out of fear of patrols that could have sent them back across the border. The urgency of their survival made journalistic interaction challenging, requiring respect for their pace of escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve decided to shut up. Because, how could they speak? How could they give their testimony about what happened at the border when all they wanted was to drink something and then move on, and move on?\u201d The connections and interactions between her and those people had to be carefully established, in order for trust to be secured and maintained throughout those conversations. \u201cFirst thing was: they were scared of me. A few women told me, \u2018I don\u2019t know you, maybe you want something from me. I\u2019ve just been raped by guards, I\u2019ve just been sexually assaulted.\u2019 They were very scared, so I thought I should just shut up and respecting their choice not to provide testimony.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI saw fear, survival, but also, with some of them, solidarity.\u201d El\u00e9onore recounts how a group of ten men ran to hide in the pistachio fields when they saw her approaching with Amin. They thought they were either the police or thieves. She had to approach them, explain that she was a French journalist, and show her face with the light of her phone for some of them to agree to talk to her.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStep by step, one guy started to chat, then a second one. Two hours later, we were laughing, we were speaking about lots of things. Some were still quiet, just wanting to move forward, but with some it was funny.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the region of Kalaat Senan, just a few kilometers from the Algerian border.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Helping create empathy<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Those migrants\u2019 stories, their conditions, and the hurdles they faced in their journey towards a better life – regardless of the reasons why they decided to start it in the first place – led El\u00e9onore to a conclusion: she will have to continue producing stories around the subject because the issue will get worse before it gets, one day, a bit better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI cannot stop this work, that is what I\u2019ve learned. Because this problem is huge and wont get any better. In my opinion, the way states are dealing with exiles will worsen. The policies of externalization and militarisation will deteriorate and lead to more and more tragedies and obstacles.\u201d Upon her return to France, she wanted to quickly travel elsewhere to obtain other stories of migrants and their journeys. \u201cFor me, Tunisia was just the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El\u00e9onore describes herself as \u201cpessimistic\u201d when it comes to possible solutions that would either lead to either the accommodation of individuals in exile in more prosperous places, with dignity and hope, or the reduction or resolution of the causes that drove them to take to the road in the first place. \u201cIt\u2019s not with a podcast series that we can change anything, I know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works like her, nevertheless, can make a difference, even if on a quite small scale. One thing she would like to help create with the \u201cTunisia, A Land of Passage\u201d series is \u201cempathy\u201d. \u201cI just want to help create feelings in people\u2019s hearts and put something new in their minds, so they can look at those who are on the move as human beings.\u201d If that is achieved, El\u00e9onore will be reassured that sitting down with people in exile to hear and record their stories is the right thing to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Pictures by El\u00e9onore Pl\u00e9, <\/em>Tunisia, 2023<\/p>\n

This article is part of the special series “Tunisia – Land of Passage”, produced by Specto Media<\/a> and aid\u00f3ni. Listen to the podcast here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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This multimedia series is produced by Specto M\u00e9dia<\/a>.
Author:<\/strong> El\u00e9onore Pl\u00e9
Investigation and production:<\/strong> El\u00e9onore Pl\u00e9
Sound production:<\/strong> Norma Suzanne
Graphic identity:<\/strong> Amandine Beghoul and Baptiste Cazaubon
French version dubbing:<\/strong> Yamane Mousli
English version dubbing:<\/strong> Isobel Coen and Julian Cola
Editing:<\/strong> Hugo Sterchi and Norma Suzanne
Recording studio:<\/strong> Radio M\u2019S<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To discover the series in French, visit Specto Media<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This multimedia series is produced in collaboration with aid\u00f3ni<\/a> for translation, and producing the articles and profiles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After spending months in routes used by people in exile in the Balkans in 2022, Specto\u2019s El\u00e9onore Pl\u00e9 wanted to see with her own eyes the conditions of people from sub-Saharan Africa crossing into Tunisia with the hope of reaching Europe. \u201cIt is about the people, not numbers\u201d, she says, in this interview about her … Continue reading ‘They were scared. So, I’ve decided to shut up’, says El\u00e9onore Pl\u00e9 about interviewing exiles in Tunisia<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,12,21,26,27],"class_list":["post-645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-africa","tag-border","tag-migration","tag-testimony","tag-tunisia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}