ABSTRACT
Hamma is a Tunisian trader in his fifties who made his career in the import trade. The business he runs is small but profitable enough to support his family in Sousse. Since 2013, Hamma has been travelling twice a month between Sousse and Ain Fakroun, a small town in eastern Algeria which is about 200 kilometres from the Tunisian border (a two-and-a-half-hour drive on a good national road). Since Hamma does not own a personal vehicle, he takes the bus. On each trip to Ain Fakroun he buys about one hundred articles of clothing from the wholesale district. To avoid paying customs duties, he entrusts his purchases to Algerian smugglers operating illegally out of Ain Fakroun. This allows him to return to Tunisia on the same day by bus. He takes delivery of the goods in Sousse, which he then sells off in the city’s souks. When his stock runs out, he returns back to Ain Fakroun.
