Jan 28, 2016 Dozens of unemployed persons recently queued outside a municipality building in the Tunisian town of Kasserine for job application documents. Elsewhere a group of unemployed graduates held a sit-in to request more job openings and regional development.
The situation in Kasserine has become Prime Minister Habib Essid’s latest challenge after a week of protests and riots over the lack of jobs.
Bemoaning the high rate of unemployment, 27-year-old Sawsan said:
“There is no job, no factories, no development, and we couldn’t even to get a piece of paper (to apply for jobs). We are here for just a piece of paper that we need and they didn’t give it to us yet, how would they give us jobs? They keep promising us but there is nothing. Everyday they tell us tomorrow, next year or later,”
Houda, a textile technician said:
“We did a revolution in order to get freedom, to work, to have a future and to ameliorate our social situation, but it is the opposite we are regressing there is nothing and the promises are just on paper. The investments are taken by the 24 other counties and we are the last one to get investment and we have nothing,”
Prime Minister Habib Essid responded to the request saying that he understood the demands of the young Tunisians. However, he added that it would take some time to respond to the economic demands.
France recently pledged 1 billion euros, over the course of five years, to help Tunisia deal with its transition to democracy.