Tunisia migrants in ‘unsuitable conditions’: rights group

More than half of the mainly sub-Saharan migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in Tunisia currently live in “unsuitable conditions,” a domestic rights group said Tuesday.

In its latest study on migration, the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES) found that “over half” of migrants in Tunisia lived “in the street, public parks, encampments, and outdoor areas.”

Tunisia is a key departure point for irregular migrants attempting perilous sea crossings across the Mediterranean to seek better lives in Europe.

Earlier this month, Tunisian Interior Minister Khaled Nouri said that more than 74,000 migrants were intercepted while trying to make the sea crossing to Europe between January 1 and mid-July.

FTDES found that 77 percent of those interviewed for the study were subjected to physical or verbal violence, though only about five percent filed a complaint “due to their administrative status.”

Even when they were sick, nine in 10 people interviewed said they did not seek health treatment “for fear of arrest.”

Anti-migrant violence spiked last year in Tunisia after President Kais Saied said in a speech that “hordes of illegal migrants” posed a demographic threat to the country.

Many were kicked out of their homes and lost their jobs amid an ensuing wave of attacks on migrants.

The study said that authorities’ mistreatment of migrants further motivates them to leave Tunisia.

But with the EU’s increasing efforts to curb migration, they often found themselves stranded in the North African country.

The migrants’ situation in Tunisia is influenced by “external factors related to Europe’s migratory policy,” FTDES spokesman Romdhane Ben Amor said.

The Tunisian state, he added, “needs this (migration) crisis externally to receive more funds … and internally to present itself as the protector of Tunisians.”

Last summer, Tunisia and the European Union signed an agreement through which Tunis received financial aid worth 105 million euros ($112 million) in return for measures to deter migrant departures, including ramping up interceptions.

Between January 1 and June 25 this year, some 3,500 migrants were sent back to their home countries through the International Organization for Migration’s “voluntary humanitarian return program.”

That figure marked a 200 percent increase in voluntary repatriations compared to the same period in 2023.