The regime in place benefits from European financial assistance even as it shirks its obligations to protect undocumented migrants. And while it demonizes activists, even throwing some behind bars, it also uses their activism to refute accusations within the international sphere of human rights violations against migrants. Lauded by its supporters, Tunisia’s government has managed to execute a policy that kills two birds with one stone.
17-year-old Saleh fled the war in Sudan and has now spent more than three months waiting for an asylum seeker card from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) in Tunisia. He has yet to hear back regarding the status of his case. The same is true for Abdallah who also escaped the civil war in his country and is awaiting the renewal of his expired asylum seeker card. In an interview with Nawaat, Abdallah relates,
I’m afraid because I am in an illegal situation now that my card has expired. I contacted the HCR to learn where my case stands, but received no response. When refugees organized a sit-in outside the HCR’s headquarters three months ago, we received this reply: the Tunisian government intended to refuse asylum seekers and close pending requests for asylum.
The situation in which Abdallah and Saleh find themselves is common to Tunisia’s 12,364 asylum seekers, HCR statistics indicate. And yet before arriving in Tunisia, a majority of these individuals were exposed to grave danger.
Authorities hunt down migrants
In a report published in May, the HCR admits, “following recent investigations involving several civil society organizations and NGOs including one of the HCR’s partners, pre-registration operations have been temporarily suspended.” This measure prevented forcibly displaced migrants from accessing asylum request procedures and basic services such as health care, child protection, shelter management, financial aid and education, especially in the Greater Tunis, Sfax, Medenine and Zarzis. The report further notes that “the temporary suspension of registration has resulted in the accumulation of asylum requests and an increase in the number of unregistered asylum seekers.” This situation “has made overall support for refugees more difficult and increased the sense of frustration experienced by those seeking asylum.”
The HCR report also evokes the closure of the Tunisian Refugee Council following the arrest of its president and a project director. As a result, migrants who arrived in Tunisia across land borders with Algeria and Libya were thrown into a situation of extreme vulnerability as authorities doubled down on them. Acting in the name of the law, the government expelled migrants to the country’s western and southern borders on the grounds that they did not have refugee or asylum seeker cards. A systematic policy designed to crack down on migrants having fled war, leaving them with two options: either request voluntary return to their countries of origin, or risk abandonment at the country’s arid desert borders.
Praised by Italy’s extreme right for its “feats” in combatting immigration, the policy implemented by President Kais Saied builds off a strategy whose objectives are twofold. It is a strategy with little regard for the rights of migrants, guaranteed under the international conventions that have been ratified by Tunisia. The first objective: to withdraw the status of refugee or asylum seeker which legally prevents the government from expelling migrants or sending them back to the border. In May, Mustafa Djemali, president of the Tunisian Refugee Council (CTR)—an NGO which collaborates with the HCR in receiving and handling asylum requests—and Abderrazek Krimi, project manager of the organization, were arrested for illegally sheltering foreigners and receiving foreign funding. Both were charged with forming an association in order to facilitate the illegal entry of foreign nationals into the country. The conspiracy against them was set into motion following the diffusion on Facebook of a call for tenders by the CTR which had originally appeared in a newspaper, concerning hotel room accommodations for refugees. President Saied expressed his anger on the topic during a meeting with government officials. Shortly thereafter, Djemali and Krimi were arrested. Since the CTR closed its doors, asylum seekers—half of whom are from Sudan—have faced difficulties in obtaining a card which affirms their status. As a consequence, they are susceptible to imprisonment or expulsion.
In an interview with Nawaat, Romdhane Ben Amor, migration specialist at the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), explained how the government implemented a “duplicitous” strategy targeting the organizations which serve undocumented migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
The government doesn’t target the organizations that criticize its migration policy, but rather those that offer various forms of support for migrants such as shelter, legal help and material assistance. It thus pushes sub-Saharan migrants to request voluntary return.
On May 8, police arrested Cherifa Riahi, former president of the association Tunisie Terre d’Asile (a branch of France Terre d’Asile), for embezzlement and helping sub-Saharan Africans to settle in Tunisia. The same month, Iyadh Bousselmi and Mohamed Joujou of the same association were also arrested. Before Riahi’s arrest and while she was on maternity leave, parliamentary deputy Badreddine Gammoudi called the public prosecutor to take action against her. Gammoudi made the request following an interview that aired on a private radio station in 2023 in which Riahi discussed the association’s activities. Among its projects, Terre d’Asile supported the social and economic integration of undocumented migrants, especially through the creation of micro-projects.
On November 12, Abdallah Saïd, founder of the association Les Enfants de la Lune in Medenine, was arrested along with employees of the same organization. The Anti-Terrorist Brigade originally assigned to the case deferred to the investigative judge on the grounds that it was not within the brigade’s jurisdiction. The deferral indicated that accusations against Saïd for embezzlement had been dropped, and that his arrest had more to do with the support he provides for women migrants. Among other activities, Les Enfants de la Lune offers training in sewing and baking for undocumented women migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.
Dissimulating its crimes
In response to accusations against Tunisia for the mistreatment of undocumented migrants, the Permanent Mission of Tunisia to the United Nations Office at Geneva denied allegations of human rights violations. In fact, the organism boasted of its cooperation with civil society organizations, among them Tunisie Terre d’Asile. Its official report makes mention of the association’s contribution to the revelation of 81 cases of human trafficking to the National Authority Against Human Trafficking, in addition to dozens of other cases reported by local organizations. Officially, at least, Tunisia recognizes the role played by civil society in addressing the cases of migrants in an irregular situation:
In Tunisia, migrants of all nationalities benefit from all the attention necessary within the limits of available resources, owing to an approach based on human rights in terms of how cases are addressed, and in compliance with international conventions relating to human rights. This work is carried out through the coordination of all concerned ministries and in cooperation with civil society organizations. All possible assistance, including shelter for women, children and vulnerable groups is provided, in coordination with the Ministry of Women and Family Affairs, as well as the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The authors of this response furthermore praise civil society’s efforts in providing aid to migrants: “Victims of human trafficking among migrants benefit from professional training services provided by civil society actors and within the framework of partnership agreements between the Authority and several associations, with support from specialized international organizations. The latter cover the costs of training and professional certifications in order to enable them to integrate into the economic circuit, whether in Tunisia or in their countries of origin if they decide to return at a later time.”
Tunisia’s response came two months after the arrest of six employees of organizations that provide support for undocumented migrants: the Tunisian Refugee Council, Tunisie Terre d’Asile and Mnemty. This was followed by the arrest of Abdallah Saïd and other members of the association Les Enfants de la Lune, accused of having helped migrants in an irregular situation to integrate economically—an activity which, according to Tunisia, falls within the scope of its policies relating to undocumented migrants. The government, for its part, through its different structures, has incited the demonization of civil society actors and thrown activists behind bars. It appears to have no qualms about maintaining an artificial discourse, publicly priding itself on partnerships with the very associations it has set out against.
Tunisia clearly admires the tactics employed by its new friends politically oriented in the extreme right, heirs of history’s worst fascist regimes, like Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, and draws inspiration from their strategies against irregular migration. Two years ago, Italy adopted a decree restricting the activity of rescue vessels for migrants, imposing heavy fines upon the organizations behind them and confiscating their boats. Hungary has been officially accused of mistreating migrants at its borders, although it receives substantial financial aid from the European Union to provide assistance to migrants. In both cases, populist discourse is used to set the most vulnerable social groups against an external enemy who is rendered responsible for economic regression and stolen jobs.
As it does everywhere, populism has succeeded in killing two birds with one stone. Tunisia has thus managed to reap the benefits of financial aid from Europe while silencing human rights advocates and displacing social frustration onto migrants—rather than allowing it settle on the failure of social policies implemented by those in power.
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