The Tunisian government has increased the monitoring of its land borders with Libya in anticipation of a western military strike on ISIS and Ansar Al Sharia-controlled cities of Sirte and Derna in Libya.
Recently, Ras Jedier Border Crossing has witnessed extensive visits by Tunisian security and military officials to check on the readiness of the police and army forces and to maintain the sand barriers and trenches set up along the Tunisian borders with Libya in the event of an intervention.
The Tunisian government has increased the monitoring of its land borders with Libya in anticipation of a western military strike on ISIS and Ansar Al Sharia-controlled cities of Sirte and Derna in Libya.
Recently, Ras Jedier Border Crossing has witnessed extensive visits by Tunisian security and military officials to check on the readiness of the police and army forces and to maintain the sand barriers and trenches set up along the Tunisian borders with Libya in the event of an intervention.
Tunisian authorities are concerned that extremists might attempt to sneak in illegally by using official passports they confiscated when they controlled Sirte. Therefore, Tunisian military has tasked a security force unit with identifying extremists of various nationalities who might potentially try to imitate the local Libyan accent and use the aforementioned passports to enter the country and carry out attacks.
Over the past year, the Tunisian government was keen on fortifying the border crossings to the south east of the country by installing advanced gates that would allow security and army forces to close the borders at will, especially during emergencies.
Additionally, the Tunisian Ministry of Defense has installed thick bulletproof walls at Ras Jedier Border Crossing in order to protect its personnel as well as its citizens when clashes with terrorist groups occur on the Libyan side.
Lessons from the first intervention
A security source in Bankardan, who spoke under conditions of anonymity, said Tunisia would adopt strict measures in case a western military intervention took place in Libya, stressing that the Tunisian authorities would not repeat their mistakes during the war on Gaddafi’s regime in 2011.
The source also added that security forces will not allow anyone fleeing armed clashes in Libya to enter Tunisia unless all legal and security measures are completed at the official border crossings.
“Five years ago, we did not close our borders and millions of Libyans passed through without being inspected. Their IDs were not registered and their passports were not stamped, which made extremists exploit the situation to smuggle arms,” he said.
Mukhtar ibn Nasr, Head of the Tunisian Center for Comprehensive Security Studies, said the military intervention’s repercussions will not be limited to the border areas, warning against the danger of terrorist static cells in Tunisia.
These terrorist cells, he added, might exploit the fragile security situation to carry out attacks when the western military intervention against ISIS starts, especially since the security and army forces will be focused on the borders.
Tunisia already strapped
Observers believe that a military strike in Libya might also affect the social situation in Tunisia as closing the borders will affect thousands of people who make their living by selling smuggled goods.
Security and military establishments stressed that they will prevent smugglers from freely conducting business when specific risks force Tunisia to close the borders during military operations in Libya.
Cutting the flow of goods coming from Libya will affect all parties involved in these operations, leading to a total paralysis in southern Tunisian cities and causing another wave of protests by the unemployed who have been forced to resort to working in the parallel market.
Local authorities did not deny sharing these concerns as they believe that taking away employment from those reliant on smuggling will lead them to protest against the government to compensate them or provide them with job opportunities until the Libyan crisis ends. Economic experts stressed that attacking terrorist groups in Libya will prove costly as thousands of Tunisian workers will return from Libya to flee the war which would increase the unemployment rate even further.
The flow of thousands of Libyans and Tunisian residents in Libya to Tunisia during the military intervention, which experts believe is imminent, will pressure an already stressed Tunisian state suffering security, economic and social difficulties for the last five years.
Economic experts also expect a 40% rise in the real estate market as well as consumable goods due to the expected increase in demand when an estimated number of 1,000,000 displaced Libyans arrive in Tunisia, which will deeply impact Tunisians’ purchasing power.
Despite all Tunisian preparations to receive those fleeing the war in Libya, the consequences of their displacement will remain unclear and may negatively affect Tunisia’s situation.
National and international aid organisations have been working for the last two months to conduct training courses and first-aid programs in preparation for helping displaced Libyans.
The Tunisian government will not allow establishing camps on its lands especially along the border areas. It will only allow licensed organisations to reach sensitive areas to provide humanitarian and medical aid to the displaced, which would prevent suspicious charity groups from reaching those fleeing the war’s atrocities to exploit them in smuggling arms under a social cover as happened in 2011.
Despite all the possible risks of an imminent war in Libya, the Tunisian state did not consider the possibility of closing its borders and preventing people from temporarily taking refuge. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Khamis Jehenawi, stressed during a press conference with his Algerian counterpart last week that Tunisia and Algeria reject any foreign intervention in Libya.
