Several members of the Italian government have been bragging about the decreasing of the arrivals of migrants from Tunisia to Italy. Data from the Ministry of the Interior show a 60% reduction of departures from the North African country in may 2023 over the same period a year ago. This drop had a noticeable human cost as pointed out by an international inquiry that revealed serious human rights violations supported by EU funds.
Tunisian President Kais Saïed introduced severe repressive measures to curb migrant departures, intensifying police operations against sub-Saharan migrants. They were accused of willing to conduct an ethnic replacement in Tunisia, a xenophobic rhetoric that has led to forced deportations on the borders with Libya and Algeria. Migrants are often abandoned by the desert dying of exhaustion. During a national security council, Saïed proudly stated that 400 migrants were transferred to the desertic borders in the past few weeks. Police operations consists in taking hundreds of people from the villages and taking them in detention camps or abandoned in remote areas.
Pictures of these operations brought out indignations from international actors but this didn’t stop the European Union and the Italian Government from keeping to provide equipment and funding to the Tunisian security forces. The United Nations published data information about deportations, revealing that around 9.000 people were intercepted by Libyan border guards along the Tunisian border since the summer of 2023, with at least 29 deaths confirmed, but the actual numbers may be higher. An international inquiry showed that Tunisian police forces conducted at least thirteen collective deportations, using vehicles and equipment provided by European states, including Italy.
The international inquiry called “Desert Dumps” and coordinated by the investigative journalism platform Lighthouse Reports together with eight newspapers, showed how Europe supports and invest directly in illegal operations in North African countries. These operations consist in abandoning tens of thousands of black people in the desert or in remote areas, making it impossible for them to reach the EU. As the inquiry says, the mechanism of illegal rejections works the same in Tunisia, Mauritania and Morocco: people are taken up in the streets from their homes or intercepted at sea, detained, loaded onto buses and abandoned in the desert without food or water, at risk of abduction, extortion and death.
The European Commission publicly ensured to check how funds are being spent and to not contribute to human rights violation but the inquiry shows a different reality. For a time now, European institutions deliberately support and are often involved in these rejections that take place in North African countries, to reduce the number of arrivals to EU borders. Vice president of the EU Commission for European Lifestyle, Margaritis Schinas, recently stated that 'no European money finances this type of accident'. However, the Lighthouse Reports investigation proves otherwise, showing how these secret operations are carried out with money, cars, supplies, intelligence and police forces provided by EU and state members.
In Tunisia about 3.4000 police officers were trained in Germany, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands. In the past three years, european states strengthen tunisian security apparatus, known for their human rights violations since Ben Ali regime. After the Jasmine Revolution this apparatus has never been reformed and is now in the hands of Saïed, who centralized power by eliminating the political opposition from July 2021.
Tunisia is getting ready to formalise its own Search and Rescue (SAR) Zone at sea and has established a National Centre for the Coordination of Maritime Search and Rescue Operations, under the control of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of the Interior. The EU could further strengthen the Tunisian coast guard by providing financial aid, training for border guards and new equipment.
According to data from the Tunisian Minister of the Interior, Kamel Feki, since the beginning of 2024, 52,972 people have attempted to cross the central Mediterranean from Tunisian shores, 48,765 of them from the Sahel. The Tunisian authorities have prevented 3,369 emigration attempts, sunk 103 boats and recovered 341 bodies at sea. In total, 595 people were arrested for aiding illegal immigration and several boats were seized. The Tunisian coast guard and police intensified operations to intercept boats ready to leave for Italy. On the night of 22-23 May, 30 Tunisians were arrested in Mahres, in the governorate of Sfax. The detainees denounce inhuman treatment and arbitrary arrests, aimed at increasing the statistics to be presented to Brussels to obtain new economic agreements. Currently, more than 1,099 migrants are detained in Tunisian prisons and 7,109 have been repatriated to their countries of origin with the support of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
These repressive actions have significantly reduced the number of departures to Italy, but at the cost of serious human rights violations and a climate of increasing oppression in Tunisia. Tunisian President Kais Saïed announced a crackdown on associations working with refugees and defending their rights, accusing NGO leaders of being traitors and foreign agents. The first to be arrested was Saadia Mosbah, president of an association against racial discrimination (Mnemty), accused of violating the anti-terrorism law. The police also raided the offices of the association Terre d'Asile Tunisie (TAT) and arrested the former director Sherifa Riahi. The president and vice-president of the Tunisian Refugee Council (CTR) were also arrested. In recent days, there have been arrests of lawyers and journalists, contributing to a climate of increasing repression in Tunisia.
Lighthouse Reports' investigation has documented in detail European involvement in anti-migrant and racially motivated operations in North Africa, using video, satellite images, documents, confidential sources and testimonies from over 50 survivors. Among the evidence reported is a 2019 EU Commission document that highlights how, even then, it was known that Morocco was abandoning 1,000 sub-Saharan refugees and asylum seekers, including children and pregnant women, in remote areas. Despite this, Fiat vans and Toyota cars were sent, identical to those seen in the footage of the migrants' arrests. In Mauritania, Spain collaborates with the local police to arrest and round up black people, before transporting them to detention centres and abandoning them in the Mali desert, an active war zone where Al-Qaeda-linked groups are fighting. Madrid, through its development agency Fiiapp, is financing two new detention centres with EU funds for the same purpose.
The European Commission, faced with these revelations, struggled to give a reaction. Ana Pisonero, spokesperson responsible for neighbourhood policy, stated that the EU is aware of the migration challenges in some partner countries and continues to cooperate with them. However, she did not directly address the enquiry's allegations, merely reiterating that the EU expects its partners to respect the fundamental rights of migrants, including the principle of non-refoulement.
The revelations of the ‘Desert Dumps’ investigation highlight one of the biggest migration and asylum scandals for the EU in recent years. The repressive policies advocated by the EU, while reducing the number of departures to Europe, are contributing to serious human rights violations and a climate of increasing oppression in North African countries, raising questions about respect for the fundamental principles on which the EU itself is based.
Translated by Flora Stanziola
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