Tunisians to aid fleeing refugees

TUNISIA: Their own revolution successfully completed, Tunisians are now mobilizing to help those fleeing the upheaval in their neighbour Libya. At the frontier post of Ras Jdir students offer water and reassurance to two Somalis who have arrived exhausted from across the border.

Every morning, as haggard knots of migrants cross the border, Wahid Abbes, 29, offers his services to the Red Crescent, whose stand is teeming with volunteers.

“Helping refugees, for us it is a test of the principles which guided our revolution: dignity, respect for the human person,” says English language student Abbes.

He is a veteran of the Kasbah, the government centre in Tunis and focus of the demonstrations that led to the toppling of president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in January.

“It is a demonstration of citizenship,” he declared standing in front of a little tent in a camp shared with friends met in Tunis during the sit-ins organised to overthrow the Ben Ali regime.

They have been there for several days, all skipping their courses, but “it is for a good cause.” Since February 20 more than 110,00 people have left Libya for Tunisia. “We study to serve our country. It’s what we are doing here, too,” said Ibrahim Moussa, 21, an aquaculture student from Bizerte in northern Tunisia.. A few kilometres away at the camp at Choucha, other young Tunisians are erecting tents and handing out hot food to the endless lines of refugees.

AFP