"Please, madam, tell me where I am..." The man standing in front of me looks exhausted. Red-rimmed eyes, black skin glistening with sweat, a raw red sun-cracked gash on one lip.

By Anna Cataldi, Goodwill Ambassador of ECRE

(Photo credits: Riccardo Venturi/contrasto)

"Please, madam, tell me where I am..." The man standing in front of me looks exhausted. Red-rimmed eyes, black skin glistening with sweat, a raw red sun-cracked gash on one lip. His only luggage is a small bag dangling from his shoulder. I wonder how long he had to walk to get to this place, which he does not know to be the Choucha transit camp, and where in the prevailing confusion no one has the time to attend to him.

Set up in haste 8 km from the Tunisian border with Libya to deal with the emergency caused by the refugees who, since 20 February, have been fleeing from the chaotic situation in Libya, the camp of Ras Jadir has had to cope with the influx of 150,000 desperate people. There are few Libyan citizens here; nearly all are foreign workers from countries nearby and further away: Egypt, Morocco, Bangladesh, China, Mali, Ghana, Nigeria. Others are from Sub-Saharan Africa, from Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan. And some from Tunisia itself.

Libya, with a population of little more than 6 million, had absorbed about one million eight hundred thousand foreigners, all employed by the local industries. Some have arrived to Libya fleeing conflict and persecutions, others have regular work contracts, still others are irregular immigrants. What will happen to these people who are now without work, without financial support, shunned by the local population - particularly if they are black - and trapped by a conflict that has nothing to do with them?

Sudanese refugees at Ras Ajdir refugee camp

Those who can head for the Egyptian border, if they came from Cyrenaica (the eastern coastal region of Libya), or for Tunisia, if coming from Tripolitana (the modern area of Libya around Tripoli). The man in shock who asked me to tell him where he was is a case in point. For him, as for them, there is a good chance that - after the checks at the camp have been made - he will be repatriated to Nigeria, the land of his birth.

Most of these refugees are wanting only to be reunited with their families in their own countries. The families they have been supporting from afar with the pay packets, slender enough in all conscience, earned by the sweat of their brow in Gaddafi's Libya.

At Jerba airport, a three-hour coach ride from Choucha, a human cargo waits every day to be loaded onto planes that will take them to their homelands. Thousands of departures every day. And thousands of new arrivals at Choucha.

The main responsibility for managing this gigantic humanitarian clearing-house has fallen on the shoulders of UNHCR, IOM (International Organization for Migration) and the Tunisian Red Crescent. Work in the camp is frenetic: receiving, registering, checking identities, feeding, caring for and accommodating exhausted people in the endless rows of tents.

The strong wind whirls the sand around, blowing it into one's mouth, one's eyes and into the tents full to capacity where people are sheltering. Despite the departures there are still 17,000 refugees living in the camp. Nearly all are waiting to be repatriated, but for some this will not be possible. These are the Somalis, Eritreans and Sudanese that cannot be sent back to countries at war.

Sudanese refugees at Ras Ajdir refugee camp

"The camp is temporary", insist the humanitarian workers. "Within two weeks our job should be done." But it is difficult to see this happening. And not only because of the apparently insoluble problem of the Sub-Saharan contingent who, armed with banners, organize protest demonstrations, but also because the relentless succession of events makes any forecast dubious.

In only a few hours, from 5:45 pm (New York time) on March 17, with the passing of Resolution 1973 in the UN Security Council, the character of the battle in Libya changed dramatically. How many more refugees will the conflict, no longer only internal but international, with these bombardments, these ferocious new confrontations, generate? How many desperate souls will seek shelter in the adjoining countries?

With a highly commendable determination and generosity, Tunisia has assumed the burden of responsibility for the refugees. From the very first days everyone, from the forces of law and order to government representatives, down to private citizens from every part of the country - even from the poorest oases - everyone has been bringing aid to these people. But Tunisia cannot continue to support the burden of the emergency alone. That the international community should organize itself to confront the problem is now a matter of the greatest urgency.

Anna Cataldi, Italian author and journalist, became ECRE's first Goodwill Ambassador in December 2010. Last week she visited the Choucha and the Ras Jédir refugee transit camps in Tunisia.

She is the author of "Letters from Sarajevo", which chronicles the impact of war on Bosnia's children. She was United Nations Messenger of Peace in 1998 and Goodwill Ambassador of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Stop TB Partnership from 2007 to 2010.