In a corner of Camp Coucha near the Tunisian-Libyan border, Mohammed Ali Kousa, a 35-year-old Somali, sits near a tent that has been his home for months. Like most African refugees who have fled the Libyan war, this young man has lost his job and hopes and waits here for a better future.

Kousa is one of the 281 foreign nationals who have not obtained asylum, and have thus been deprived of any right to resettle in American and European countries. He says the civil war in Somalia forced him to leave home four years ago to settle in Misrata, Libya.

In a corner of Camp Coucha near the Tunisian-Libyan border, Mohammed Ali Kousa, a 35-year-old Somali, sits near a tent that has been his home for months. Like most African refugees who have fled the Libyan war, this young man has lost his job and hopes and waits here for a better future.

Kousa is one of the 281 foreign nationals who have not obtained asylum, and have thus been deprived of any right to resettle in American and European countries. He says the civil war in Somalia forced him to leave home four years ago to settle in Misrata, Libya.

Humble dreams

Kousa, along with many of his countrymen, worked in poultry farms for a monthly salary that exceeded $ 300. This opportunity helped him fulfill small dreams he had like getting married and having children who would not suffer the same conditions he faced during his own childhood.

Kousa says Somalis were able to blend in the Libyan social and cultural fabric for its deeply rooted Arab traditions, which he says do not differ much from those back in his homeland. But shortly after the outbreak of the armed revolution, complications arose, especially after the proclamation of Gaddafi’s employment of thousands of African mercenary soldiers, which led rebels to attack Somalis and Chadians, with no distinction between job seekers and snipers.

Kousa’s determination and hard work at the poultry farm for more than 10 hours daily enabled him to save more than $ 4,700 that he paid as ransom to Gaddafi’s soldiers to let him cross Tripoli towards Tunisia.

“Shall I return to the hell of war in Somalia, or take the risk of secretly sailing to the Italian coasts when my temporary refugee card expires in February 2013?” he wondered.

 Camp within a camp

Choucha Camp is comprised of five divisions where division E suffers the most miserable conditions, according to Shoaib Hassan, a 31-year-old Darfurian.

 “We have been living here for months, suffering all kinds of slavery and discrimination after being stacked in a specialized division for refugees whose asylum applications were rejected by UNHCR,” said Hassan.  He stressed that services, including health services, differ from those in the other divisions.

Hassan’s statements are similar to those of Chadian Moussa Ibrahim, who describes division E as a camp within the camp. These conditions have forced the division residents to work in cultivation and construction in “Ben Gardane” near the camp, seeking money to provide for their women and children.

A UNHCR official says Choucha Camp hosts 1,600 refugees who will be deported during the coming months to America and Australia, in preparation for closing it by the end of the coming year.

He adds that 281 refugees of different nationalities will not benefit from the international convention for resettlement since their applications have been rejected for not meeting the standards defined by the signatory states of the aforementioned convention. “Their situation is very complicated since they arrived to the camp after the deadline for the registration in the official list of Libyan war refugees,” he explained.

The Palestinian families in the camp, he suggests, have been the exceptions in obtaining asylum to a European country, in contrast to what some media outlets stated. He justified such an exception as it is impossible for Palestinians to stay in Tunisia due to the conflict with the “Palestinians’ right of return” agreed upon by the Arab League.

Having preferred anonymity, that same official said the camp was established in May 2011, 10 kilometers away from the Tunisian-Libyan border for the purpose of hosting 10,000 African and Asian citizens who fled the bloody confrontations in Libya.

Harassment and discrimination

The school built by UNICEF comprises a number of classrooms and a recreational space for the children’s activities in the fields of art and music. No cameras are allowed there for humanitarian reasons and according to the UNICEF statue.

Program coordinator Huda Mestiri describes this school as the camp’s paradise due to the privileges enjoyed by 170 students divided into six age levels.  “The formal education program in Tunisia is the curriculum adopted in cooperation with the UNICEF and the Ministry of Education.  However, Somali kids are separated in another division for their inability to speak or understand Arabic and French, prompting the school administration to use local instructors from within the camp.

The management has considered the possibility of the children’s exposure to physical risks or sexual harassment while moving between their residence and the school. Therefore, it has established a small internal transport system of private cars.

According to the UNHCR statistics, the school hosts 80% of the total number of the camp’s children. UNICEF suggests that the language barrier and some psychiatric conditions have hindered the enrollment of the other children.

The camp represents a complex scene; a mosaic picture revealing the unknown fate of hundreds of refugees who, in spite of their grief, congratulate their compatriots for leaving to better countries that will preserve their rights and dignity.

Tunisian Ministry of Immigration refused to comment on the subject. In the meantime, the future of Mohammed Ali Kousa and his neighbors in the camp remains uncertain while all involved parties have evaded responsibility.