"These are the ones with raised suspensions", says Firas*, who runs a garage on the outskirts of the city. The Citroën C15s or other older vans have the distinctive feature of a raised rear, "to support heavy loads", explains the garage owner. Some of them are equipped with extra tanks to bring back fuel, which is much cheaper on the Libyan side.

Al-khatt, the "customs fraud" route

These vehicles usually operate on the road leading from Libya to Ben Guerdane via Ras Jdir, a border post located some 30 km away. In the region, this axis is known as "al-khatt", literally "the line", and those who drive the vehicles refer to it as "working on the line". 

"One thousand", "two thousand", "five thousand"... The estimate of the number of vehicles that make the round trip once or several times a day varies according to the inhabitants interviewed. Nevertheless, there are undoubtedly many who engage in this practice. One of them, however, rejects the term "smuggling": for him it is simply a trade.

"They are not in the smuggling business, in reality they are in the business of customs fraud", says Hamza Meddeb, a researcher at the Carnegie Middle East Center, in an interview with inkyfada. "It's a form of fraud that goes through the official posts: it's not smuggling in the sense that smuggling is conducted completely externally."

In theory, all goods entering or leaving the national territory "are subject, where applicable, to the tariff law, except for express derogations provided for by the commercial treaties and conventions in force", according to the Customs Code. When someone crosses the Tunisian border, they must therefore declare what they are transporting and pay taxes according to the type of goods and quantity.

In fact, there are agreements between traders and customs officers. "There have even been agreements signed to allow traders to have a maximum amount of goods" in return for the payment of a fixed tax, says Hamza Meddeb. So they pay a flat rate and do not have to declare their goods.

A round trip worth 
several thousand dinars

There are other cars that also distinguish the urban landscape of Ben Guerdane. Powerful Toyota or Isuzu pick-ups cross the city streets. They do not usually stop at the border posts on their way to Libya, but prefer to take the desert route. They are "among the only cars capable of driving in the desert, crossing the sand dunes, and being effective in car chases with the security forces", writes Hamza Meddeb. 

This is exactly the type of vehicle that Anis* used to drive the many times he crossed the border at night when he lived in Ben Guerdane. "A round trip [to Libya] can bring in several thousand dinars, depending on the merchandise", he confidently asserts. 

The crossing takes place in the desert or in the middle of the sebkhas, and usually at night. For this, there is "no need for a drivers' licence, no need for insurance, or even number plates" because everything is done illegally. Indeed, "entry and exit from Tunisia can only be carried out through the border points determined by order of the Interior Secretary of State", the legislation explicitly states. This parameter makes the activity much riskier than the passage through Ras Jdir.

In the desert, " no one gets rich without paying with their own life", says Anis.

In the Toyota pick-up, which "belongs to someone who doesn't necessarily come on the trip", the drivers are not alone in making the journey. There is often also "a guard to keep an eye on things, and a third person in charge of the loading and the goods", he explains. 

In the end, his role was to deliver goods to large warehouses "somewhere in the governorate of Tataouine", and the profits were shared between the different protagonists.

An entire economy behind 
the system

This trade is organised by groups of local Tunisians and Libyans. "The location of the tribes is very important", notes Anis. "They agree on their needs and then trade across the border", he says. "Blankets in winter, air conditioners in summer... The nature of the products varies according to seasons and shortages."

"Not just anyone can go into smuggling. The market is closed, you have to know people."

The informal cross-border trade economy ranges from the small trader who crosses the border on a daily basis, to the large ones who have negotiating capacity - both with their counterparts in Libya and the security forces.

On the same subject

Investigations

At the Heart of Human Trafficking Networks in Libya

However, it doesn't stop there. In addition to transportation, "there are several types of informal activities in the region", Hamza Meddeb explains, such as "selling petrol, the traders on the side of the road, the small merchants selling the goods, etc". 

According to Hamza Meddeb, 80% of the population of Ben Guerdane works in the informal sector. This statistic was given to him by a senior official of the city. "He said: ' you take out the civil servants who work at the post, you end up with the vast majority of the population in the informal economy'". Much of this informal activity is linked to Libya.

Along the "rue du change [i.e. exchange street]" (as it is called by the inhabitants of Ben Guerdane) several dozen informal exchange offices are spread out. On March 29, 2022, 1 Tunisian dinar was exchanged for 1.61 "jni", i.e. the Libyan dinar. Sitting in one of these offices, Mohamed awaits behind the counter for a car to stop and change money.

Mohamed is very familiar with the traders who go to Libya. "We work with them", he says blatantly. "They come here, we give them jni, they give us Tunisian dinars and they leave." Sometimes they exchange 1000 Tunisian dinars, "other times more". However, for each transaction, Mohamed only gets a few dinars in profit.

The role of exchange is very important for the economic and human relations between Libya and Tunisia.

“Ben Guerdane assure la convertibilité des dinars tunisiens et libyens”, estime Hamza Meddeb.

The two 'currencies' are not official currencies, and are consequently not tradable on the international markets. 

However, Libyans come to Tunisia en masse and represent the largest contingent of foreigners visiting Tunisia, with more than 520,000 entries in 2021, the majority of which are via Ras Jdir, according to the INS. Without the possibility of exchanging their money through official channels, Libyans resort to these informal exchange offices. 

Further along the road to Ras Jdir, there are shops selling imported goods as far as the eye can see. Each one has its own field of specialisation: household appliances, basic foodstuffs, utensils, consumer goods, etc. "The goods come from Spain, France, Turkey and the Emirates, they are imported into Libya and then brought back here", a manager explains.

Moreover, the economic impact of this trade extends far beyond the delegation of Ben Guerdane. In Dhehiba, another border post, the situation is similar. Even further west, about 70 km away in the centre of Medenine, Ahmed* sells all sorts of foodstuffs such as dried fruit and industrial cheese... "Most of them come from Libya", he explains proudly.

His stand is next to 'Souk Libya', on the dried-up riverbed of the 'Oued Smar'. This open-air market has many stalls selling products from Libya, that have been delivered from Ben Guerdane by transporters.

Historic exchanges

In February 1988, a few months after Ben Ali assumed power, Tunisia and Libya agreed to open the border, with Tripoli welcoming the overthrow of Bourguiba. "The Libyan authorities welcomed this change of regime", writes Hassen Boubakri, a professor at the University of Sousse. 

Afterwards, Libya played the role of a 'warehouse state'. "Many Libyan traders were importing because there were no customs duties in Libya", the researcher explains. Tunisians also started to import. 

"Many prefer to pass through Libyan ports, whether Tripoli or Misrata, where they pay zero tax. It's of greater interest than having goods delivered to Rades. The situation has changed with the security context."

In addition to much lower import costs, Hamza Meddeb emphasises the price difference of certain products between Tunisia and Libya. "There are many products that are cheaper in Libya."

Fuel is a very illustrative example. Taking advantage of the fact that their country is a major world producer, Libyans have access to petrol and diesel at a lower cost. According to a source in Tripolitania, a litre of petrol is priced at 150 millimes  in Libyan dinars at the pump, which is about 95 millimes in Tunisian dinars.

On the other side of the border, Tunisian petrol stations price a litre at 2.220dt, that is: 23 times more expensive. Many people consequently cross the border to get fuel in Libya, and then sell it in Tunisia. A pump attendant at an informal station near Ben Guerdane said he charges 1.650 dt per litre.

An uncertain and dangerous business

With the Covid-19 pandemic, border crossings opened and closed as the virus spread, and health measures were imposed by the authorities of both states. Since September 2021, the border has been kept open, allowing the regular trade to resume.

"When the border is closed, we are unemployed", Mohamed, the currency trader, laments, "and we don't get unemployment [benefits]".

"It's been seven months since the border opened, thank God", he rejoices. The same thing was echoed by one of the shop managers on the Ras Jdir road, "when the border closes, we have no work". 

To understand the city's dependence on the cross-border economy, "you just have to look at the impact of the border closure", Hamza Meddeb comments. "The city endures for a few days, a few weeks, and then it starts to boil over. Revenues dwindle and diminish."

Moreover, the situation in Libya does not help. "Before, people used to go there to work, but now they can't because of the security situation", the researcher explains. In addition to this, there are political and economic reforms: "for many products there is less and less of a differential, because of the compensation reform."

The Libyan war and its consequences for Tunisia have pushed the regional economy into the shadow of the state's security agenda. In 2013, Tunisia proclaimed a 30km buffer zone by republican decree, running along the border and subject to authorisation for entry. Sand dams and a water trench were also built.

"Any person inside the area must comply with the orders given to them to stop or submit to being searched whenever addressed by members of the patrols who are empowered to use all legal means and techniques of intervention in order to force people to stop or submit to being searched in the event of disobedience.", Article 7 of Republican Order No. 2013-230 of 29 August 2013.

The Islamic State's attack on Ben Guerdane on March 7, 2016, prompted the state to tighten  measures. In addition to physical barriers, the border is now equipped with an electronic surveillance system set up in cooperation with the United States.

Since the introduction of these measures, several smugglers have been shot dead by the armed forces in the delegation of Ben Guerdane, but also further south in Dhehiba, where the other border post to Libya is located. Others died in car accidents during a police pursuit.

Having been moved by several traumatic stories, Anis tells us of the dead and the wounded. In the middle of a salt lake in the border area, a smuggler lost both of his legs, "severed by the steering wheel of his vehicle", in a violent accident following a pursuit by the army. "I'd rather eat bread and onions than die", he says today. He has since given up this risky trade.

Hamza Meddeb, Mohamed and Anis all agree that the flow of the desert trade has decreased significantly, so much so that "many of them have chosen to start diversifying their activities", says the Carnegie researcher. "They are investing in real estate, in the Sahel, in Tunis, by the lake. Some are already thinking about what comes next, especially those who have gotten some money."

However, many others have no choice. For the manager of one of the shops located on "al-khatt", the verdict is clear: "without the border, we die".