Jamal Aleverni, a Libyan citizen, waited angrily for hours in front of the Ras Ajdir passport checkpoint holding his Tunisian wife’s passport after being denied entry to Tunisia.
Tunisian security explained that the border closure had been enforced since the suicide bomb attack targeting a presidential security bus on November 25, causing the death of 12 guards.
Jamal Aleverni, a Libyan citizen, waited angrily for hours in front of the Ras Ajdir passport checkpoint holding his Tunisian wife’s passport after being denied entry to Tunisia.
Tunisian security explained that the border closure had been enforced since the suicide bomb attack targeting a presidential security bus on November 25, causing the death of 12 guards.
“Should I leave my wife here and return to Tripoli alone?” Aleverni asked. “Why are there are no exceptions made by the Tunisian government? My wife is a teacher not a terrorist,” he said.
In many checkpoints before Ras Ajdir, hundreds of army and police officers meticulously check the identities of Libyan car owners who have been allowed to return home after the National Security Council’s decision on November 28 to close the border.
Trying to stop terrorists
“We closed the borders with Libya because of dangerous circumstances where fighters sneak in from Libya and spread terror in Tunisia,” Prime Minister Al-Habib as-Sid said to parliament on November 30.
Security guards at Ras Ajdir say that investigations show that closing the borders was a “good action” since weapons and explosives used in some terrorist operations in Tunisia had been imported from Libya.
“Terrorists are not stupid enough to try to transport weapons and explosives through an intensively controlled official crossing,” says the chief of the security unit in Ben Guerdan city situated near the checkpoint. Yet he believes that it is essential to keep the border closed to bring order in Tunisia, stop Tunisians from joining Libyan terrorist organizations and make conditions harder for terrorists coming from Libya.”
“The focus of the border information system during that period will be on finding a mechanism to stop suspects from Libya from executing terrorist operations in Tunisia using fake passports,” says the chief.
Daesh has reportedly taken control over the passport office in Sirte, Libya which worries Tunisian authorities that terrorists might enter its territory.
“Hundreds of Tunisian fighters were able to have official Libyan passports,” says the same security source in Ben Guerdan. He warns that they may commit terrorist attacks when they come back home.
“Terrorist groups are training Tunisian fighters to be familiar with Libyan local dialect to facilitate their entry into Tunisia disguised as tourists or as patients,” he adds.
“Libya has become a threat to the national security of Tunisia, especially after the emergence of Daesh and their control of entire cities,” says Ali Azarmadini, a retired general in the Ministry of Interior.
He maintains that closing borders with Libya for two weeks is not enough to immunize Tunisia against the forthcoming danger from Libya, a country controlled by militias and with enough arms to equip armies in ten underdeveloped countries.
Since the border closing, the MOI has doubled the staff in Ras Ajdir and equipped them with advanced surveillance equipment to control the frontiers with Libya, especially after recently thwarting some terrorist operations.
Merchants suffering from the border closure
The road between Ben Guerdan and Ras Ajdir is now unusually guarded though absent of bigger trucks, which used to transport Libyan goods to Tunisia.
Traders dealing in goods smuggled from Libya say a long closure of the borders will affect their business and their livelihoods. Yet, some traders understand the need for the closure and are waiting for the situation to calm down.
“Small merchants dealing with Libyan smuggled goods in the southern cities are suffering from the closure,” says Shazli Al-Felali, a shop owner in Ben Guerdan.
He maintain that these merchants are facing higher prices imposed by the smugglers who control the black market, and that longer closure will make merchants incur “huge losses.”
Smuggled gasoline prices increased 100% since the first day after the border’s closure. Consequently, prices of all goods will be subject to the same increase with the depletion of the wholesalers’ inventories.
“Closing the borders will lead to a social disaster and will damage the interests of merchants involved in the trade between both countries. This decision has to be reconsidered,” says Moustafa Abelkabir, a Libyan activist and specialist in Libyan affairs.
He adds that closing land frontiers coincides with the season of grenadine and dates exports to Libya, which will damage the crops delayed from arrival, to the cold storage warehouses in Libyan cities.
Abdelkabir found the decision strange now that borders are intensively controlled and 459 km of earthen barriers are under the army surveillance.
However, former security officer Ali Alzaramdini strongly objected to the idea of reopening the frontiers, explaining that “the government has to consider facts related to the national security. They will discover that security is more important than economic interest. Our people in southern Tunisia should understand that national security is a priority and smugglers have enough financial resources to survive an entire year without trading with Libya.”
