"I thought I'd be greeted as a hero," Moez admits, lowering his eyes. Disillusionment could not be greater. This 39 year old Tunisian has participated in the revolution that led to the downfall of Ben Ali on January 14 last. But when he arrived in France in early April, "in the country of the revolution of 1789" is the customs that had welcomed him.
Moez is from Gabes, a coastal city in central Tunisia. Long-term unemployed despite his State diploma Technician clothing, Tunisian revolution has restored the desire to dream. He dreams of Europe, the job he could find, the money he could send to his mother, a widow and retired. He dreams of dignity.And he knows that Tunisia will take years to recover from 23 years of dictatorship.
The wind in its sails
In mid-March, so he left Gabes to the nearby city of Zarzis, where he boarded a small fishing boat for the modest sum of 1,500 dinars, or about 800 euros, saved penny by penny for the whole family . Direction the Italian island of Lampedusa.
"We worked 24-hour crossing. There were people weeping, others vomited. With the weight of passengers, the boat sank in the sea and there was water up to their knees" says he.
The 87 passengers on the makeshift boat arrived safely at Lampedusa. Moez believes in his lucky star. "I am a lucky man," continues he repeated.His face is soft and toothless smile.
In Lampedusa, he is greeted by the Border Police who leads straight into a detention center. A week to wait. A week to sleep in the courtyard on the ground without a blanket, no mattress, before being transferred to Cretonne in central Italy.
Moez but the wind in its sails. He escapes and hits the road: a train to Ventimiglia, the French-Italian border, twenty miles on foot to Menton, France. Then up through France Charleville-Mezieres, where authorities arrested him at the station. Police station, photos, fingerprints ... Moez has seven days to leave the territory.It will not wait so much.
After two days, the police come for him at 7 o'clock in the morning at the friend who hosts it. Three cars and eight police officers were mobilized for the occasion.
"All this for me chuckle there before rebelling, I'm certainly not a terrorist! The police stopped us because of our face, our skin color. But we are not thieves . Take the boat, it's dangerous, it is suicide. It's like Bouazizi Sidi Bouzid.But we do it because we dream of a better life not to steal the bread from the French. "
"Europe must react"
After passing through the detention center (ARC) from Roissy, it is returned to where he received his Ventimiglia sesame after one week: a temporary residence for six months.
His papers in his pocket, he tried again through France.But he did not need a week before being stopped and checked by police.
"Moez beats the record of arrests because he has a mouth of an Arab!" summarizes passionately Samia Maktouf, lawyer Franco-Tunisian volunteer at the Paris Bar, who is fighting to get him a work permit.
"Europe should react and stop doing the ping-pong between France and Italy. It is contrary to the spirit of the Schengen agreement not to allow refugees to move freely. We must take steps to the height of the humanitarian tragedy, "continued the lawyer who took over the back of a twenty Tunisians.
An appeal is likely to remain a dead letter.After the tension between Rome and Paris in recent weeks following the influx of immigrants Tunisian and Libyan, via Italy, France expressed its support for strengthening the provision of temporary suspension of the free movement of Schengen.
"I am a lucky man ..."
For a week, Moez open the walls and just hide all day in the office of his lawyer, legal as well as moral support. And if Samia Maktouf short courts, prefectures and departments to plead his cause, yet it is in the privacy of the office that the solutions are.
Thanks to a Tunisian businessman, Customer Master Maktouf, passing through Paris on that day, Moez spring the firm with a job offer in hand. The interim.Just enough time to recover and return home with dignity. The shining eyes, he whispers quietly: "I am a lucky man ..."
