The EU may envisage a role for Tunisia similar to the one Britain is assigning to Rwanda. The Tunisians deny this, but the indications are mounting. In theory, Tunisia would be an ideal country to house migrants whose asylum application is not accepted in the EU.

In this way, the Europeans would copy the “Rwanda plan” of the British government, which attempts to assign a similar role to distant Rwanda.

In practice, this does not seem to be the case, if we base what the president of Tunisia, Cais Said, is arguing.

In early April, Sayed made it clear that his country “will neither become a center of residence nor a center of trafficking” for refugees and immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, while it will not accept immigrants either “who are deported from Europe”. It is not the first time that he has made such statements, but this time he also had the support of the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who assured that Rome is not aiming for a new version of the “Rwanda plan».

Migratory flows to Italy via Tunisia have increased significantly for about four years.

Do statements match actions?

Except that the statements seem to contradict reality, if we consider that Italy par excellence, but also the EU as a whole are doing everything they can to limit the migration flows from Tunisia.

Meloni’s supportive statements came immediately after the signing of three new bilateral agreements under the so-called “Matei plan” to deepen economic cooperation between Rome and North African countries.

The agreements provide, among other things, for the granting of financial assistance of 105 million euros to Tunis, which for its part is called upon to limit migration flows to the EU.

They are signed just eight months after the agreement with Brussels for a “strategic cooperation memorandum” with Tunisia, amounting to 1 billion euros, of which 115 million will be allocated to combating irregular immigration.

This “pragmatic cooperation” has already significantly reduced the number of migrants heading to Europe via Tunisia since the signing of the memorandum.

According to the latest figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), by April 15 the Tunisian Coast Guard had “intercepted” around 21,000 migrants attempting to enter EU territorial waters, while the number of new arrivals in Italy has decreased by half in the same time period.

“The aim of the agreement between the EU and Tunisia is to keep refugees and migrants out of the EU and not out of Tunisia,” Kelly Pettillo, a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), tells DW. “All these deals do is undermine the rights of refugees and migrants, without addressing the structural causes of migration. Such an agreement has zero contribution to respect for human rights…».

Is Tunisia a “safe country”?

Kelly Pettillo points out that these agreements ignore the fact that Tunisia cannot be considered a “safe country” for permanent residence of immigrants. And this is because President Sayed has not only weakened democratic institutions after the imposition of “emergency measures” in 2021, but has also succeeded specifically against immigrants. I

particularly intense is the criticism expressed by Salsabil Heliali, head of the Tunisian section of Human Rights Watch.

““Refugees, immigrants and those seeking asylum in Tunisia today suffer serious violations of their rights by the security forces, even when they are intercepted by the Coast Guard,” she says. “They face violent treatment, arbitrary arrests and collective deportations, to name just a few of the violations of their rights. At the same time, the Tunisian authorities continue to push back migrants and asylum seekers at the country’s borders with Libya and Algeria. This behavior has now become a common tactic».

In addition, the Human Rights Watch associate points out, many migrants already in Tunisia live in miserable conditions, for example in rudimentary camps on the outskirts of the city of Sfax.

But all this, Salsabil Heliali emphasizes, is not only due to President Sayed, but also to the EU, which insists on financing immigration control, contradicting the respect for human rights and the fundamental principles it is supposed to represent.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, approximately 12,000 refugees and asylum seekers currently reside in Tunisia.

“Meloni knows…»

Certainly they were not the last to seek to enter the country, seeking escape to Europe. As Heike Lessmann, director of the Heinrich Bell political foundation in Tunis, explains, “Ms. Meloni is well aware that up to 80,000 migrants are currently trapped in the olive groves south of Sfax, just waiting for the weather to improve. This is also one of the reasons for her visit to Tunisia. On the one hand (the Italian prime minister) states that she will offer more opportunities for legal Tunisian immigration to her country, on the other hand she wants to limit irregular immigration, while at the same time she expresses a request to limit the flow of immigrants from other sub-Saharan countries of Africa to Italy».

Edited by: Yiannis Papadimitriou