Saied emphasizes dealing from a position of strength between Tunisia and Europe
Tunisian President Kais Saied stressed, during his meeting with Monday Nabil Ammar, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Immigration and Tunisians Abroad, the sovereignty of Tunisia and the need to act from the position of peer to peer, as this comes before the talks that will be held on Tuesday between Catherine Colonna, French Foreign Minister, and her Tunisian counterpart in Paris on the issue of migration and ways to support Tunisia in facing its economic crisis.
“Some pens are still shaken by the longing for the sermons of Jill Frey,” who were among the most prominent supporters of the expansionist colonial movement, Said said, stressing the need for Tunisia to stick to its strategic relations with European countries and the European Union within the framework of the common interest.
He referred to the initiative he had presented on organizing a summit of the Community of North African, South Sahel, Saharan and North Mediterranean States to address the causes of migration, considering that it “can only be described as inhumane.”
Traditional security solutions have proved to be inadequate and limited, he said, as they only address consequences and impacts without eliminating the causes of irregular migration.
“The Tunisian authorities have a right to be vigilant when the influx of illegal migrants increases with all the consequences,” Nabil Ammar said earlier.
Meanwhile, Fawzi Masmoudi, the public prosecutor and spokesman of the Sfax Court, said on Monday that a migrant from sub-Saharan Africa was stabbed to death and five others were injured in an attack carried out by Tunisian youths in central-eastern Tunisia.
“He said the attack was carried out between the night of 22 and 23 May by seven Tunisians armed with knives and swords against 19 migrants who gathered at a house in the popular Haffara neighborhood of Sfax.”
A 30-year-old man from Benin was killed in the attack, and five people from sub-Saharan Africa were hospitalized with “non-life-threatening injuries”, the source said. Three Tunisians, aged 17, 23 and 36, were arrested after a judicial investigation was opened, al-Masmoudi said.
Several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) condemned the crime, which “comes in the midst of incitement to hatred and racism against migrants from sub-Saharan Africa”, according to a statement by the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights.
The videos show seven men attacking the migrants based on initial results of the interrogation, he said, adding that the investigation into the attack is ongoing.
Twenty-three NGOs warned in a joint statement that the rhetoric of intimidation against African migrants spreading on social media is contributing to mobilization against the most vulnerable and fueling violent behavior against them.
These organizations, including the Tunisian League for Human Rights and the World Organization Against Torture, criticized the “climate of impunity and normalization of violence” and held Tunisian President Kais Saied responsible.
“The departure of African migrants from Tunisia intensified after a speech on 21 February in which Saied criticized irregular migration as a demographic threat to his country.”
“A large portion of the 21,000 officially registered citizens of sub-Saharan Africa – most of them in an irregular situation – were lost overnight to victims of their jobs and housing as a result of a crackdown on migrants, while cases of abuse were recorded.”
“Most migrants from sub-Saharan Africa come to Tunisia to migrate by sea to Europe and illegally reach Italy’s shores, but they often cannot afford the hundreds of dollars’ worth of travel to Italy.”
Tunisia has abolished visa requirements for several African countries over the past decade. But getting a residency permit can be very difficult.
British Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick began a tour of Africa on Monday, including visits to Tunisia and Algeria, during which he offered the UK’s all-out help in dismantling irregular immigration gangs, the Daily Mail reported.
“The UK will introduce new measures to reduce the number of irregular migrants from Africa to Europe and will intensify efforts to crack down on the gangs that regulate immigration,” Jenrick said.
