Squatting in Tunisia

Informal settlements known as "gourbivilles" sprang up in the French protectorate of Tunisia in the 1930s and again after World War II.

[1][2] As French colonialists introduced the concept of private property to nomadic tribes, lawyers such as Habib Bourguiba (later President of Tunisia) represented the rights of squatters.

[2][4] From the 1960s onwards, areas of land on the periphery of cities were either bought or squatted, and the new inhabitants built housing for themselves, sometimes creating new suburbs with bad infrastructure.

By 1980, the country had 210 informal settlements housing around 500,000 people (28 per cent of the population of urban zones).

[5] Following the Tunisian Revolution began the Arab Spring in 2011, President Ben Ali was deposed and in the disorder many people occupied public land.