Adam* was just 14 when he left his home in Sierra Leone with his father and younger brother, now aged six, in February 2022. Two years later, the brothers are living on their own and begging for food in the town of Al Amra in Tunisia.
Their father had been the one to persuade Adam and his brother to come with him to find work and an education in Europe. Their family fortunes had plummeted after their mother had a car accident and their father, who had been working as a driver, didn’t have enough money to replace the vehicle.
But after reaching Algeria, their father was arrested by the police and taken away. They have not seen him since. “I have no way to contact him, we don’t even know if he is alive,” says Adam.
There are millions of children on the move across the world, but an increasing number of them are travelling alone after being separated from their parents.
In Tunisia, almost 1,500 unaccompanied children approached the offices of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to seek support and asylum last year. Many had fled conflict in Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Eritrea. Between January and August 2023, 12% of arrivals by sea to Italy – a common destination for migrants in Tunisia – were unaccompanied children.
The vast majority of the children experience one or more of arbitrary detention, trafficking, sexual violence and labour exploitation while they are travelling.
John*, a community leader at a makeshift camp set up by migrants and refugees in Al Amra, says children are being separated from their parents by the police. “Their mums and dads go out to beg and then the police catch them and take them to Algeria.”
Many arrived at the makeshift camp last summer after authorities expelled hundreds of sub-Saharan African people from the nearby coastal city of Sfax, , says John. Violence and racial tensions had flared in the city after the death of a Tunisian man in July 2023. While police maintain a constant presence around Al Amra, John says locals have donated food and water and, for the most part, tolerate them living there.
John, originally from Sierra Leone, says he was temporarily separated from his wife and seven-year-old son. He was caught as he tried to cross to Italy in a smuggler’s boat and was driven by bus to be forcibly expelled from Tunisia into Algeria.
“There’s a strategy to keep arresting people,” he says. “If you try to get to Tunis to register at the UNHCR offices you get caught by the police en route.” Tunisian officials have previously denied expelling migrants.
Others forcibly expelled said they had seen children singled out for the worst abuse.
Benjamin*, who had walked from Algeria back to Al Amra after being expelled to the border, says: “I saw a boy on the bus and as soon as I saw him, I felt uncomfortable. He was a Guinean and told me he was 14.
“The police beat us with batons and chains as we got off the bus at the Algerian border, but they caught [the boy] and tortured him. When we were in the Algerian desert, I didn’t see him again.”
In Tunisia, John says children are more likely to be the ones out begging as they were less likely to be arrested. “My son has complained that some local people are touching him inappropriately. He said Tunisian men were touching him on the buttocks and he’s really fed up with it, but what can we do? We cannot complain to a policeman, so I told my son to beg in a different place.”
Fatmata*, 23, also living in Al Amra, says women and girls have been sexually harassed: “You’re begging so they use their advantage over you and ask for sex. Some girls do it for food.”
For Adam and his brother, it was only the kindness of a stranger that enabled them to reach Tunisia after being separated from their father. After continuing their journey to Libya, Adam had worked as a general labourer.
“I was with one Arab man in Libya and he looked after us,” he says. “I’m very grateful to that man. He helped me with a small amount of money so that my brother and I managed to come here.”
Adam, like everyone else in Al Amra, still hopes to make the sea crossing to Italy. More than 11,600 unaccompanied children reportedly crossed the central Mediterranean sea between January and mid-September last year, up 60% from 2022. At least 289 of those children are believed to have died or disappeared.
For the time being, it is Adam’s younger brother who is looking after him. “I don’t feel well because of the cold here. So it is my little brother who goes out to beg to get money for food,” he says.
*Names changed