On Thursday 14 April, 18 refugees were arrested by security forces in the capital Tunis. The arrests came after a group of 210 people voiced their demands over the lack of response from the UNHCR and decided to move their protest to the agency's headquarters in Tunis.
The decision to move the protest came after the group had been sitting in front of the UNHCR office in Zarzis for more than two months, following the UN agency's recent measures to close many dormitories housing refugees and asylum seekers and to reduce the number of residents due to 'lack of financial support', as the agency stated earlier this year. This has effectively forced many of them to leave, as there are no alternatives that meet the minimum living standards and expectations of people on the move.
While the group of 18 detained refugees was later released on 15 April, many women, men and children are still being denied the right to move and prevented from going to Zarzis station to leave. This situation is further proof of the inadequacy of the agency, whose only response to the migrants, who have remained for months in degrading conditions, has been to suspend services, responding to their requests in an inhumane and contemptuous manner, saying: 'we are not a travel agency'.
The UN agency announced the suspension of its services to refugees and asylum seekers on 18 and 19 April in response to their protest.
Refugees and asylum seekers want a favourable environment in which their rights are respected. Whatever the merits of their demands, the policy of closed doors in the face of the ordeal of men, children and women seeking refuge and left out in the open for long periods of time does not serve the purpose of 'raising awareness of the suffering of refugees, defending their rights and coordinating efforts to assist them'.
The undersigned
- Stand in solidarity with refugees who struggle and protest for their rights and dignity.
- hold the UNHCR responsible for the deterioration of the situation caused by the lack of dialogue with refugees and asylum seekers and exacerbated by the policy of "closed doors" and the use of provocative statements.
- Consider that the performance of the UNHCR in Tunisia, and in particular in the Governorate of Medenine, such as the lack of adequate assistance to refugees and asylum seekers, the slow processing of asylum applications and other shortcomings in terms of access to basic services such as health care, education, legal assistance, financial, psychological and social support, have contributed to aggravating the precarious situation of refugees and asylum seekers, especially women and children.
- Strongly condemn the policy of externalisation by which the EU seeks to keep refugees away from its borders by making the UNHCR increasingly subservient to the protection of EU interests rather than to the rights of refugees.
