Wooden boats from Libya and iron boats from Tunisia intercepted by the Tunisian coastguard at the port of El Louza, 40km east of Sfax. Credit: Nissim Gasteli

Joint statement by civil society organisations involved in search and rescue at sea and migrant solidarity networks

In light of the current authoritarian transformation of the Tunisian state[1] and the extreme violence and persecution against the black population, migrants, political opponents and civil society actors, we, the undersigned organisations, issue this statement to remind you that Tunisia is neither a safe country of origin nor a safe third country and therefore cannot be considered as a Safe Place of Safety (POS) for people rescued at sea. We urge the authorities of the European Union and its Member States to withdraw their migration control agreements with the Tunisian authorities and express our solidarity with those affected.

Racist attacks on black people and repression of Tunisian civil society

Repression against political opponents, civil society and minorities in Tunisia has intensified in recent months [2]. Several Tunisian and international human rights organisations have expressed concern about "the weakening of the independence of the judiciary, the arrests of critics and political opponents, the military trials of civilians, the continued repression of freedom of expression and threats to civil society" [3].

At the same time, the racist and discriminatory speech made by Tunisian President Kais Saied on 21 February against migrants from sub-Saharan Africa has exacerbated the already existing anti-black racism in Tunisia, leading to a worsening of the situation, especially for those from Central and West African countries [4]. Large numbers of people from the African diaspora living in Sfax, Sousse and the capital, Tunis, have been subjected to acts of violence and have found themselves without housing, without food and without the right to health care and public transport [5]. Black Africans suffer not only pogroms by armed groups, but also forms of institutional violence. They are racially profiled, arrested and arbitrarily detained by the security forces. Some have been subjected to enforced disappearance [6]. For almost a month, around 250 homeless people, including some children, staged a sit-in in front of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), demanding their immediate evacuation as their lives were in danger [7]. On 11 April, the protest was violently dispersed by security forces, who used tear gas to disperse the crowd, causing serious injuries. Around 80 people were arrested. Some of them reported torture and ill-treatment [8].

These developments come at a time when Tunisia's socio-economic situation continues to deteriorate, with unemployment at 15 per cent and inflation at 10 per cent. There are shortages of basic goods and water is in short supply due to the drought.

Tunisia is not a safe place to land!

There were already enough elements to question Tunisia's security for its own citizens, claiming that it was not a safe country of origin [9]. Despite this, Italy's expulsions of Tunisian citizens who do not have access to international protection are increasing [10]. In the light of recent developments, it seems even more urgent to state that the situation is extremely serious and dangerous for black people and foreigners, to the extent that Tunisia's security as a third country also appears to be deeply compromised.

This combination of factors puts black migrants and opposition voices in a vulnerable position. Not feeling safe in Tunisia, migrants from sub-Saharan Africa are trying to leave a country that is becoming increasingly dangerous for them. Consequently, people intercepted at sea while trying to flee the country should not be allowed to disembark in Tunisia. According to the SAR (Search And Rescue) Convention, rescue is defined as "an operation aimed at rescuing persons in distress, meeting their initial medical and other needs and bringing them to a safe place of disembarkation" [11]. Resolution MSC 167(78) of the International Maritime Organisation further defines a safe place of disembarkation as 'a place where the safety and life of survivors are no longer threatened and where their basic needs (such as food, shelter and medical necessities) can be met' [12].

Tunisia does not have a national asylum system and people rescued at sea, whether Tunisian or non-Tunisian, are at high risk of human rights violations, detention [13] and forced refoulement [14].

The disembarkation of shipwrecked and intercepted persons in Tunisia violates international human rights law and the law of the sea.

Ending Europe's complicity in border deaths

For more than a decade, the EU and its member states have politically supported, financed and equipped the Tunisian state to protect its borders and contain migration to Europe [15]. The aim is clear: to prevent the arrival of migrants in Europe at all costs.

This is achieved through various agreements on 'joint migration management', border surveillance and the repatriation of Tunisian citizens. Between 2016 and 2020, more than €37 million has been allocated to Tunisia through the EU Trust Fund for Africa to support 'migration and border management' [16]. Millions more are on the way. In addition, the EU supports Tunisia through 'police training, provision of data collection and management equipment, technical assistance, equipment and maintenance of coastal patrol vessels and other tools for tracking and monitoring movements' [17]. Unfortunately, no change in European policy is in sight. As recently as November 2022, in its latest Action Plan for the Central Mediterranean, the European Commission mentioned its aim to 'strengthen Tunisia's capacity [...] to prevent irregular departures [and] support more effective border and migration management' [18].

In this way, the EU is also supporting the Tunisian coastguard, an actor whose human rights violations against migrants are well documented. In recent years, the number of interceptions and rejections by the Tunisian coastguard has risen sharply. In the first quarter of 2023 alone, 14,963 people were prevented from leaving Tunisia by sea and forcibly returned against their will on behalf of the EU [19]. As early as December 2022, more than fifty associations denounced the violence of the Tunisian coastguard: "attacks on people with sticks, shots in the air or towards the engine, attacks with knives, dangerous manoeuvres to try to sink boats, demands for money in exchange for rescue..." [20]. These attacks have intensified in recent months, targeting both Tunisian and non-Tunisian migrants [21]. In addition, the Tunisian coastguard has recently been documented stealing engines from boats attempting to flee the country, leaving the people on board to drift to their deaths [22].

The undersigned organisations recall that Tunisia is not a safe country of origin for Tunisian citizens. Nor can it be considered a safe country of landing for people from sub-Saharan Africa, either for Tunisian citizens or for other foreigners fleeing the country. We call on the authorities of the European Union and its Member States to cease technical and financial support to the Tunisian Coast Guard and to cease cooperation to control migration from Tunisia and to ensure safe channels of movement for all.

Signing organisations:

Abolish Frontex

Afrique-Europe-Interact

​​Alarmephone Sahara

All Included Amsterdam

Arci

Association for Justice, Equality, and Peace (AJEP)

Association Intersection pour les Droits et les Libertés Tunisie 

Association pour la promotion du droit à la différence Tunisie 

Association Sentiers Tunisie 

Association Tunisienne pour les Droits et les Libertés 

Association Tunisienne de défense des libertés individuelles

Association Tunisienne de l'Action Culturelle (ATAC)

Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI) 

Avocats sans frontières (ASF)

Association Tunisienne des femmes démocrates (ATFD) 

Associazione Radicali Certi Diritti

Baobab Experience

borderline-europe Human Rights without Borders e.V

Boza Fii

Border Violence Monitoring Network 

Campagna LasciateCIEntrare 

Carovane Migranti (Italia-Tunisia-Centroamerica)

Comité pour le respect des libertés et des droits de l’Homme en Tunisie (CRLDHT)

Comitee 21 March (Netherlands) 

CompassCollective

Dance Beyond Borders 

EMERGENCY

EuroMed Rights

Fédération des Associations de Solidarité avec Tou-te-s les Immigré-e-s (Fasti)

Fédération des Tunisiens pour une citoyenneté des deux rives (FTCR)

Flüchtlingsrat Niedersachsen e.V.

Forum Tunisien pour les Droits Économiques et Sociaux (FTDES)

International Justice and Human Rights Centre 

iuventa-crew

kritnet - Netzwerk Kritische Migrations- und Grenzregimeforschung

Ligue Tunisienne des Droits de l’Homme 

Louise Michel 

Maldusa

Mare*Go Zusammenland e.V

Mare Liberum

Mediterranea Saving Humans

Melting Pot Europe Project

Mem.Med - Memoria Mediterranea 

Migrant Solidarity Network

migration-control.info project

Migreurop

Mission Lifeline

Moviment Graffitti

Open Arms

Psychologues Du Monde Tunisie (PDMT) 

Reclaim The Sea

Refugees in Libya

Refugees Platform in Egypt

Refugees' Solidarity Movement

RESQSHIP

R42-sailandrescue

Salvamento Marítimo Humanitario (SMH)

SARAH (Search And Rescue for All Humans) 

Sea-Eye

Sea Punks

Sea-Watch

Seebrücke

Solidary Wheels No Borders For Human Rights

SOS Humanity

Statewatch

United4Rescue

Unitat Contra el Feixisme i el Racisme (Catalonia)

Watch the Med Alarmphone

w2eu - Welcome to europe

[1] The newly approved constitution contains a highly authoritarian project that weakens the already fragile instruments of political and criminal accountability of the president and may abolish the separation of powers.https://www.ispionline.it/en/publication/saieds-constitution-authoritarian-project-behind-bottom-curtain-35847

[2] See Decree 54 on Combating Crimes Related to Information and Communication Systems, used by the Kais Saied regime to prosecute journalists and all those who criticise the regime.

[3] Letter by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Euromed Rights, Commissione Internazionale dei Giuristi, https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2023/03/gl.2023.03.17.Joint%20CSO%20letter%20HR%20in%20Tunisia.pdf

[4] Tunisia must immediately stop hate speech and violence against migrants from south of Sahara, UN Committee issues early warning | OHCHR 

[5] FTDES (2023): Report febbraio 2023, https://ftdes.net/rapports/en.fevrier2023.pdf, p. 16. 

[6] See the discriminatory laws against migrants in Tunisia (Law 07/1968, Law 06/2004 and others).

[7] https://twitter.com/RefugeesTunisia

[8] https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/tunisia-black-refugees-reeling-violent-police-crackdown

[9] https://www.dirittoimmigrazionecittadinanza.it/allegati/fascicolo-n-3-2021/810-templatetunisia/file e https://brill.com/view/journals/emil/24/4/article-p570_5.xml#d2985591e342
[10] https://altreconomia.it/i-rimpatri-record-verso-la-tunisia-paese-sicuro-solo-per-il-governo-italiano/ e https://www.lasciatecientrare.it/navi-e-manette/

[11] Points 1.3.2, Annex, SAR Convention

[12] https://wwwcdn.imo.org/localresources/en/OurWork/Facilitation/Documents/MSC.167%20(78).pdf
[13] In the first four months of 2023, 3200 migrants were detained in Tunisia for 'illegal stay'. (https://ftdes.net/statistiques-migration-2023/)

[14] https://alarmphone.org/en/2021/10/03/chain-of-push-backs-from-tunisian-ports-to-the-libyan-desert/

[15] https://migration-control.info/en/wiki/tunisia/

[16] CMRCC (2023): Struggles Along The Tunisian Route, Echoes, Issue 4, January 2023, https://civilmrcc.eu/echoes-from-the-central-mediterranean/echoes4-jan2023/, p. 13.

[17] Ibid.

[18] https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2022-11/EU%20Action%20Plan%20for%20the%20Central%20Mediterranean_en.pdf punto 3

[19] https://ftdes.net/statistiques-migration-2023/

[20] FTDES (2022): Deadly policies in the Mediterranean: stop the shipwrecks off the Tunisian coast, https://ftdes.net/en/politiques-meurtrieres-en-mediterranee-pour-que-cessent-ces-naufrages-consciemment-provoques-au-large-de-la-tunisie/

[21] CMRCC (2023): Struggles Along The Tunisian Route, Echoes, Issue 4, January 2023, https://civilmrcc.eu/echoes-from-the-central-mediterranean/echoes4-jan2023/, p. 12.

[22] Alarm Phone, 09.03.2023, https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1633733346164371456 and

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/30/migration-capital-of-the-med-hope-and-fear-on-unwelcoming-streets-of-tunisia