Translated by Mariateresa Tauro
On 15th December, the trial of several humanitarian workers from the Tunisian branch of the French NGO France Terre d'Asile, which assists migrants and refugees, was due to take place in Tunis.
The defendants, three NGO workers, Sherifa Riahi, Yadh Bousseimi and Mohamed Joo, and 20 municipal officials from the city of Sousse, are accused of ‘facilitating the illegal entry and stay’ of migrants in Tunisia. They face up to 10 years in prison, but the charges appear vague and general. Some of them have been in custody since May 2024.
The trial has been postponed until early January, but, in the meantime, various civil society groups are calling for the charges to be dropped, arguing that the protection and assistance of migrants are provided for in international conventions that Tunisia has ratified and therefore cannot constitute a crime.
The NGO Terre d'Asile was duly registered in Tunisia, in accordance with local legislation, and worked closely with the local authorities – which is why municipal officials are also involved in the trial. The trial against them would violate the right to freedom of association and, above all, criminalise humanitarian operations by preventing respect for the rights of refugees, migrants in transit and asylum seekers, whose assistance is protected by the right to freedom of association, enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. It cannot be compared to human trafficking under the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, ratified by Tunisia.
According to Amnesty International, repression against civil society organisations in Tunisia has intensified since May 2024, particularly against organisations working on migration issues: there have been a series of arbitrary detentions and arrests, asset freezes and orders to suspend activities.
Although the right to political asylum is recognised in the Tunisian constitution and Tunisia ratified the Geneva Convention in 1951, the country does not have an asylum law because the text has never been adopted. Therefore, asylum matters were entirely delegated to the UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency.
In June 2024, however, the Tunisian authorities effectively eliminated the possibility of applying for asylum in the country, ordering the UNHCR to suspend the registration of applications and the determination of refugee status, without any known reason.
According to Amnesty, the most worrying sentence was handed down on 24th November against staff members of the Tunisian Council for Refugees, whose founder and project director was sentenced to two years in prison. However, having already served 18 months in preventive detention and with the remaining six months suspended, he was released from prison. The association collaborated with UNHCR to provide essential assistance, such as emergency accommodation, to those awaiting a response to their asylum application.
Other organisations that have been investigated and detained include the anti-racism NGO Mnemty, whose president has been in prison since May 2024; since November of the same year, the president of Bambini della luna di Medenine (Children of the Moon of Medenine) for children's rights has also been detained, and since December, the executive director of the Association for the Promotion of the Right to Difference has been in preventive detention.
Tunisia is often a transit country, particularly for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa heading to Europe. With the suspension of UNHCR activities and attacks on organisations, access to assistance services and human rights protection in Tunisia is severely compromised. Moreover, according to the president of Amnesty International France, Anne Savinel-Barras, ‘this reveals a deeply disturbing state strategy aimed at dismantling the foundations of civic space’.
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