Migration 49

Civil Society La rédaction 08 August 2025

Unusual Suspects: Case Studies in Tunisia’s Crackdown on Civil Society

Tunisia’s recent trajectory has been marked by a serious regression in terms of civil liberties, particularly since 2023. The space for civil society has receded, with executive authorities wielding the law as a tool to target rights defenders, humanitarian organizations, and outspoken critics of the current government. This in-depth review presents the stories of seven individuals—Saadia Mosbah, Saloua Ghrissa, Imen Ouardani, Mustapha Djemali, Abdallah Saïd, Sherifa Riahi, and Sonia Dahmani—each of whom has faced arrest, prosecution, or extended detention for work previously regarded as necessary for Tunisia’s nascent democracy. By examining these cases in detail, we can understand the mechanisms at work against and consequences endured by those whose pursuits are humanitarian, anti-racist, or openly critical of the government in present-day Tunisia.

Rights Najla Ben Salah 23 December 2024

Migration in Tunisia: The government’s doublespeak

Praised for its “feats” by Italy’s extreme right, the immigration policy implemented by President Kais Saied builds off a strategy whose objectives are twofold. Here is how the government has succeeded in killing two birds with one stone.

World Léonard Sompairac 15 August 2024

Migration: The Wretched of the Borders

The Mediterranean is becoming a graveyard as Europe looks to outsource the management of its borders, dealing out bribes to countries at its southern and eastern gateways. Stripped of their humanity, migrants are reduced to grim statistics. Journalists within the network Independent Media on the Arab World present readers with a series of articles exposing the exorbitant price paid by concerned populations, against their will.

Civil Society Rihab Boukhayatia 17 May 2024

President Saied’s migration alibi paves way for repression

Civil society activists and employees arrested, UN organizations vilified, media outlets—including Nawaat—targeted. Once again, the country’s migration crisis serves as pretext for the ongoing witch hunt led by President Kais Saied to suppress the voices of regime critics.

Blogs Shreya Parikh 07 May 2024

From dignity to racial purity? Saied’s anti-“African” agenda

In a shocking display of President Kais Saied’s populist politics and anti-migrant crackdown, Tunisian police forcibly dismantled a protest camp of asylum seekers in Tunis early on May 3rd, expelling around 500 black migrants to the Algerian and Libyan borders without food or water. This brutal action underscores the Tunisian government’s increasingly explicit agenda of racial purification targeting sub-Saharan Africans, which human rights groups condemn as blatant anti-Black racism cloaked in anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Rights Rihab Boukhayatia 20 February 2024

Tunisia faces influx of Sudanese immigrants: Report in Lac 1

“Even dogs deserve a more decent life,” says a young Sudanese man, one of thousands who have arrived in Tunisia in the past months. In Tunis’ northern suburb of Lac 1, a makeshift camp has sprung up, a sprawl of sheet metal tents, tarps and used blankets spread across the ground. The contrast with the neighborhood’s ostentatious architecture is glaring.

Rights Rihab Boukhayatia 28 December 2023

The struggle is twofold for LGBT migrants in Tunisia

Fleeing persecution in their countries of origin, LGBT migrants set off in the hopes of finding safety elsewhere. During their journey across country borders, they are exposed to extreme violence, and sexual abuse in particular. Their ordeal continues when they arrive in Tunisia, where they are confronted with other forms of abuse. For these individuals, the future does not lie in Tunisia. But their safe passage to another country requires the support of the UNHCR.

Rights Vanessa Szakal 17 November 2023

Western aid to Tunisia fuels migration mismanagement, Refugees International report explains

A new report by Refugees International sheds light on the systematic human rights violations targeting refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in Tunisia since the arbitrary expulsions carried out in July, and calls for Europe and the US to reconsider their funding—and fundamental approach—for managing migration across the Mediterranean.

Society Rihab Boukhayatia 02 November 2023

Tunisian youth: Between instability and dreams of broader horizons

More and more, Tunisian youth are turning away from politics to focus on their personal trajectories. With the outlook grim for national salvation, young people are seeking out their own paths to individual salvation. What is the situation of these youth? What do they imagine for their future? Report.

World Irene Van Der Linde 23 October 2023

EU-Tunisia: Why the Dutch were compelled to strike a deal with an autocrat

On July 16, the European Commission signed a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ with Tunisia, granting the country millions of euros to prevent migrants and refugees from crossing the Mediterranean to seek shelter in Europe. But why did the Dutch prime minister play a pioneering role in the conclusion of the Tunisia deal, if only a small proportion of the migrants along this route travel on to the Netherlands? This analysis examines how the Dutch anti-migration policy became self-evident.

Economy Rihab Boukhayatia 20 October 2023

Work in Tunisia: Regularizing the status of undocumented immigrants

Although they are accused of stealing jobs from Tunisians, undocumented immigrants nevertheless respond to a labor shortage across a number sectors that are spurned by the local workforce. Regularizing the status of foreign workers in Tunisia would not only put an end to the scapegoating and forceful expulsion endured by immigrants, but would also stem the exploitation to which they are exposed.

Economy Hatem Nafti 30 September 2023

The IMF and the West in Tunisia: Saied, a fish caught in the net?

The question is nothing short of provocative in light of the president’s ever nationalist discourse. But the facts remain. As it activates certain elements of policies recommended by the IMF, Carthage appears to be settling into place beneath the wing of its friends to the West.

Society Rihab Boukhayatia 12 September 2023

Dreams and disillusionment: Tunisian migrants in Italy

Each year, thousands of Tunisians attempt the perilous journey across the Mediterranean in order to reach Italy. But dreams of an Italian promised land fall away as migrants are faced with a harsh reality. Once ashore, Tunisian workers enter into a life of precarity.

Society Rihab Boukhayatia 12 July 2023

Selective Immigration: Tunisia loses its skilled workforce to broader horizons

Nurses, doctors, engineers, university students, restaurateurs…are leaving Tunisia in droves. The country is losing its skilled workforce to Europe and the Gulf countries, with no end to the exodus in sight.

Rights Hatem Nafti 04 July 2023

Tunisia and Europe dive back into « readmission » for irregular migrants

Over the past month, Tunis has received visits from a number of European officials offering aid to the Saied regime in exchange for cooperation on migration issues. Their proposals all revolve around one prickly question: the return and readmission of Tunisian and foreign immigrants.

Politics Simon Speakman Cordall 29 April 2023

It’s not you, it’s them: the populist appeal of Kais Saied

President Kais Saied’s time in power has been anything but uneventful. However, his claims of speaking for ‘the people,’ his hatred of any institution that stands in his way and his endless conspiracies, which dominate the public conversation while the economy sinks, all have parallels. They’re there in Donald Trump, Hugo Chavez and even Silvio Berlusconi.

Politics Hatem Nafti 10 April 2023

Diplomacy: Friends of Kais Saied’s Tunisia

Recent statements by high officials in the West—namely Giorgia Meloni and Emmanuel Macron—in addition to increased contact with Qatar are burying the aspirations to turn away from Tunisia’s traditional western allies, as proposed by supporters of the current regime. Close up on the geopolitics of president Kais Saied.

Environment Teycir Ben Naser 23 March 2023

Migration: In El Faouar, climate change is pushing locals out

El Faouar, Kebili governorate: the lack of water, encroaching sand, plummeting revenues from date palm production, and inability to invest in lands in order to make them arable have put much of the local population in an impossible situation. With little or no hope left for the future, many locals are leaving El Faouar in search of new horizons.