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The externalisation of the EU’s borders to manage and prevent irregular migration is not without significant collateral damage in the countries that have readily accepted it. Tunisia is a case in point. By creating areas where people from the southern Mediterranean are turned back and confined, this policy forces the populations of third countries to endorse a policy of controlling migratory movements at a time when they themselves are subject to restrictions on movement, and very often suffer the loss or death, sometimes without burial, of a child forced to emigrate illegally. The recent speech by President Kais Saied, stigmatising sub-Saharan immigration in terms tinged with nationalism, xenophobia, and religious fundamentalism, has reactivated the scapegoat logic of sad memory. To gauge the extent of Tunisians’ growing hostility towards sub-Saharan migrants and the impact in the country of tighter controls on foreigners, this article is based on three surveys conducted in Tunisia in 2023.