The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES) has voiced concerns about the migrant situation in the country, drawing attention to its severe humanitarian implications. FTDES accuses the Tunisian government of employing repressive strategies against migrants in exchange for substantial financial and logistical backing from Europe.
Key issues raised in the statement include reports of harsh climatic conditions and expulsions towards the Libyan border, ultimately leading to the incarceration of individuals in detention centers. Also noted are arbitrary stops of migrants, property seizures, destruction, and accounts of violence.
Such deeds affect a broad spectrum of people, extending to migrant workers, students, refugees, asylum seekers, minors, women, and stateless individuals who have legally entered Tunisian territory. Above all, FTDES is critical of European governments for presumably neglecting human rights and migrant rights, asserting their direct involvement in the humanitarian tragedies along the borders.
In July, the EU signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tunisia. Intended to cover areas such as economic cooperation, green energy transition, and educational collaboration, the MoU also committed a financial support package of 105 million euros towards combating irregular migration.
Amnesty International was quick to censure the migration agreement, attributing to the EU a level of complicity in violations against asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants.
Amnesty’s Advocacy Director at the European Institutions Office, Eve Geddie, opined that this misguided agreement, given the mounting evidence of serious human rights abuses by authorities, will foster a risky expansion of doomed migration policies and signals EU acceptance of an increasingly repressive behavior by Tunisia’s leadership.
Interestingly, Tunisia’s President Kaid Saied is on record as having scapegoated sub-Saharan migrants for the country’s economic tribulations, prompting an increase in the use of xenophobic rhetoric by presenting them as a menace to Tunisia’s Arab and Islamic identity. Assertively, FTDES underlines that such actions ought to cease in order to uphold the human rights of migrants entering the country.