Libyan demand for furnished flats in Tunisia’s southern cities has led to a rise in property brokers. Apartments are being converted into furnished residences overnight and put on the market by brokers who receive a fixed percentage for every tenant they find. They are the preferred solution for Libyans who, undeterred by the prices being asked, are looking to find a refuge and recover the sense of security that they have lost in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and other centres of sectarian and political strife.

Libyan demand for furnished flats in Tunisia’s southern cities has led to a rise in property brokers. Apartments are being converted into furnished residences overnight and put on the market by brokers who receive a fixed percentage for every tenant they find. They are the preferred solution for Libyans who, undeterred by the prices being asked, are looking to find a refuge and recover the sense of security that they have lost in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and other centres of sectarian and political strife.

Hassan Al Ameri is a 24-year-old student, facing the same situation as many other students in the south-east of the country. He has been unable to find an apartment for rent for the 2014-2015 academic year. “I’ve been studying industrial chemistry for the past three years in the Faculty of Sciences,” he said. “In June I handed the keys of my apartment to the owner and went back to my hometown of Tozeur. I can’t afford rent for June and July so I prefer to go home and then, the moment lectures begin again I set out with my three friends to look for a new place to stay.

This year our house hunt will be different, because the apartments are full of Libyans fleeing the fighting, and rents have quadrupled from 250 Dinars (US $150) to 1000 Dinars (US $740) in just a single month.”

Thousands of Libyans leaving their country and temporarily settling in Tunisia has produced an explosion in the country’s commercial sector and a slight but noticeable growth in the property and tourism sector. But these profits are made at the expense of the country’s middle income households. The Libyan newcomers compete with locals to purchase consumer goods, some of which have now run out, while university students encounter problems finding apartments that used to be freely available at low prices.

This occupation of residential units has, in a very short time, made huge sums for property investors, but Hassan, unable to find a proper home to protect him from the summer heat and cold winter, has been forced to rent out a place usually used as shop where vegetables are sold. Forty square metres at most, Hassan describes his new accommodation as a “cage.” There is no tap and no bathroom, forcing him to use the toilets at the Faculty of Sciences or one of the nearby cafes, and to take a shower at a friend’s house once a week. “My chances of passing this year are pretty slim,” he says in despair. “How will I be able to revise and pass my exams when this horrible lifestyle is all I can think about? This place has really affected my mood and makes it hard for me to concentrate.”

We welcome our Libyan brothers with open arms, but the political developments in their country aren’t my fault. Those battles in Libya have forced me and my fellow students into a never-ending cycle of homelessness that will affect our academic and professional futures.”

Khoula, is 23 years old and has been forced to live in an apartment rented out by three other male students. “I know that our conservative society forbids such behaviour but this temporary solution was the only alternative I had to sleeping out in the street. I looked everywhere but I couldn’t find one place suited to my financial situation, because the owners of apartments and houses have put their properties aside for Libyans at quite absurd prices, just in hope of making a profit. I will have to ensure that my housemates respect me and understand the exceptional nature of the situation that brought me there,” she says.

“When the crisis in Libya clears up, maybe homeowners will be forced to go back to the old prices, but if the Libyans stay much longer then maybe more of them will turn up to squash our dreams forever.”

Fleeing hell

Difficulty finding accommodation is not confined to students alone but also affects government employees coming from other cities in Tunisia. A number of them have been forced to apply for sick leave in order to remain in their hometowns while the rest have had to sacrifice more than half their monthly salaries to cover rents in the city.

Following the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, Libyans dreamed of a civil state in which human rights were honoured: an oasis of democracy after long years of autocratic rule. Political conflict, the spread of weapons and the infiltration of Islamist extremists, have all put paid to that dream, drawing the Libyan people into an intractable and bloody stand-off between the regime’s forces and armed militias. They have left the battlefield to those who are fighting over power and fled the hell of war for the safety of Tunisia, saving their lives, but at the same time disarranging the socialist order of their host country, especially when it comes to student accommodation.

 Explosions and assassinations have prompted Libyans to make for Tunisian soil on more than one occasion. The Libyan people regard their neighbour as a safe refuge, but Tunisia’s own transition is not all plain sailing, due the terrorism that seeks to impose Sharia Law on the country’s inhabitants. Although aware of the terrorist threat posed by Libya, especially the possibility of extremists and weapons smuggling their way over the mountains in the north-west, the Tunisian government has refused to shut its borders against those seeking security and stability on Tunisian soil.