The 21-year-old last week headed for the Libya-Tunisia border to assist refugees who fled the fighting in Libya, and now live in camps near the border.
Travelling with his brother-in-law, Basir made his way through Tunisia on the weekend, visiting four refugee camps. “It’s overwhelming,” the University of Waterloo graduate said in an interview via Skype on Monday.
“At the beginning we just sat down and looked at each other and said, ‘Wow, this is completely over our heads compared to what we expected.’”
The camps are made up of rows of tents housing hundreds of families who fled with few belongings, and far less cash.
While most camps are functioning well — with proper meals, and even activities for children — one in Remada had only small, flimsy tents and a shortage of bathrooms.
Basir said there is a lot of pride in the culture of the Libyan families living in these overheated tents, and many of the older men he spoke to at Remada wouldn’t open up. “They’re almost too ashamed to come out of their tent to greet me because they don’t want to show that they’re living in such terrible conditions.”
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