Drowned migrants get ‘dignified’ burial in Tunisia cemetery
- The migrants drowned crossing the Mediterranean in the hope of a better life in Europe
- The migrants deserve a dignified resting place, said Rachid Koraichi, the Algerian artist and Sufi Muslim who built the cemetery
A cemetery in southern Tunisia for migrants who drowned crossing the Mediterranean in the hope of a better life in Europe is already half full – even before it is formally opened.
Jardin d’Afrique, French for “Garden of Africa”, is for those who were “the wretched of the sea”, said Rachid Koraichi, the Algerian artist and Sufi Muslim who built the cemetery.
These migrants, many of whom drowned after boarding flimsy and overloaded boats while facing extortion from “gangsters and terrorists”, deserve a dignified resting place, he said.
I wanted to help the families get closure and for them to know that there is a place for a dignified burial.
“I wanted to give them a first taste of paradise,” 74-year-old Koraichi said.
His art includes sculptures and ceramics embellished with calligraphy, and has been exhibited from Venice to New York.
In 2018, he bought a plot of land to host the cemetery in the southern Tunisian port of Zarzis, near the Libyan border; an area where countless migrants have taken to sea over the years.
More than 200 white graves already fill the cemetery, surrounded by five olive trees to symbolise the five precepts of Islam and 12 vines to represent the 12 apostles who were the first disciples of Jesus.