Solidarity against pushbacks across Tunisia, Libya, Algeria

Since our starting fieldwork in the Maghreb area, we met many people on the move victim of massive
pushbacks from Tunisia to Libya and Algeria, as well as from Algeria to Niger. Their turbulent
movements depict a space of circulation across the area, and show evidences of severe human rights
violations by States’ authorities, but at the same time contribute to generate new itineraries and
shelters; in some way digging a counter-routes and places of dwelling resisting to the forced mobility
imposed by different institutional military apparatus. Some research informants are still on the
southern shore of the Mediterranean, others are now settling in different Eu cities. The research object
is twofold: on the one hand we aim to document the rationale and effectiveness, through the victims’
testimonies, of the pushback operations carried out by the state authorities in the area thanks to the
logistical and financial support of the European Union, and on the other to understand how solidarity
among people on the move may generate routes of resistance against deportations and reopen the
possibility of reproducing undocumented mobility. Expanding on Tazzioli findings about “Governing
migrant mobility through mobility: Containment and dispersal at the internal frontiers of Europe”,
this caravan, grounded on the voices and representations of people on the move and deportees, will
explore the interplay between the infrastructure of pushbacks across the region of
Tunisia/Lybia/Algeria and the infrastructure built upon both solidarity networks and market
providers, countering forced mobility and expulsions. By doing so, we rely on the theoretical
approach of Solroutes project; this space of circulation is indeed conceivable as a crossroad of
corridors, stretching across and connecting different countries, filled with specific devices, tools, and
military apparatuses (drones, satellites, checkpoints, garrisons, bus and prison) and lived-in routes,
which are the spatial result of unauthorized movements and migrants’ agency, forced mobility and
solidarity networks. Solidarity and cooperation can become a driving force in transforming a forced
corridor into a lived-in route: a space of dwelling, hospitality and care.

The first round of ethnographic fieldwork in Tunisia (October 23 – July 24) allowed us to build up,
among black sub-Saharan people on the move, a strong network of informants, continuously
corresponding through digital devices with our team; this network is now scattered along many routes
and locations. Interviews will be the main device for research and will be held mainly online with
people on the move in Libya, Tunisia and Algeria; while we will reconstruct through in presence
interviews the trajectory of pushbacks and solidarity routes with those informants who manage to
cross the Mediterranean. We aim to collect at least 40 interviews of people who experienced pushbacks
operations.

Support and cooperation:
In order to grasp the concrete working of the pushback machine, to diversify and multiply the testimonies, to explore the way solidarity is performed in such vulnerable situations, and to give public relevance to the narratives collected, we plan to involve in the making of the research: a) an association (ON Borders) acting on different shelters in Italy where refugees and people on the move, who havre crossed the Central Mediterranean, stop in their way to the North; b) an association of lawyers (ASGI) to cope with all legal issues that may arise; c) an organization dealing with countermapping on migration an border issues (Border Forensic).

Cultural Object:
This caravan is grounded on a participatory and public sociology perspective, which deals with digital ethnography methods. Part of the narratives of deportees and people on the move will be made public, in an anonymous way, through an IG page, whose name is The Routes Journal, a laboratory for selfrepresentation promoted by the network of correspondents. All research products and data will be disseminated thanks to Solroutes Media-board and made available for relevant journalist networks such as Lighthouse Report.

Final product:
A joint report with the previous associations and organization on “Pushbacks, human trafficking and solidarities among people on the move on the Southern Shore of the Mediterranean”