2023-06-19 17:00:21
Faced with the increase in the departure of migrants to European shores, the French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, visiting Tunis on Monday, promised an envelope of 25.8 million euros to Tunisia to help the authorities to purchase of equipment needed to monitor migrant crossings to Europe. This aid should also be used to train Tunisian police and border guards.
Published on: 06/19/2023 – 19:00
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced Monday (June 19th) in Tunis the granting by France of nearly 26 million euros to Tunisia to help it fight against irregular immigration.
This “bilateral aid of 25.8 million dedicated to migration issues” will enable Tunisia to “acquire the necessary equipment and organize useful training, in particular for Tunisian police and border guards”.
It will be added to an envelope of 105 million euros announced a week ago by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen to support Tunisia in the fight “against irregular immigration”.
The French donation should be used “to contain the irregular flow of migrants and to promote their return in good conditions”, said Gérald Darmanin.
Departures from Tunisia to European shores, particularly to Italy, have skyrocketed since January 2023. In May, the European border surveillance agency (Frontex) counted 1,100% more crossings than last year at the same time.
The responsibility of the countries of origin pointed out
After having met, with his German counterpart Nancy Faeser, President Kaïs Saïed, Gérald Darmanin took up a formula used recently by the Tunisian leader, according to which “Tunisia is not the border guard of Europe”.
“It is not the vocation of Tunisia to be the border guard of Europe, he added, believing that it was up to the countries of origin of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa transiting through Tunisia. “to ensure that there are a minimum of departures”.
Kaïs Saïed, for his part, warned when he received the two ministers that Tunisia “will only be the guardian” of its own borders. “We will not accept that Tunisia becomes a country of resettlement” for migrants, added.
He called for “breaking the vicious circle” of illegal immigration with a new approach to deal with it, in particular by addressing “the causes” of this phenomenon.
On a hard line against immigration in his country, the Tunisian president announced in February repressive measures against migrants from sub-Saharan Africa living in the country.
The leader then attacked sub-Saharan migrants in a very violent speech, which led to the multiplication of cases of attacks against nationals of sub-Saharan Africa in Tunisia.
Since this controversial speech, many of them are trying to leave the country, which may partly explain the increase in departures to European shores.
“A European approach to the migration challenge”
Tunisia is also a crossing point to Europe. Many migrants from sub-Saharan Africa arrive in Tunisia to then attempt to immigrate illegally by sea to European shores, with some stretches of the Tunisian coastline being less than 150 km from the Italian island of Lampedusa.
“Tunisia is the first victim of this irregular immigration and we want to assure it of all our solidarity,” said Gérald Darmanin.
He defended “a European approach to the migration challenge as well as with the countries of Africa”, in order “to fight against the networks of smugglers” and “to support the return and resettlement [des migrants, ndlr] in their countries of origin”.
The French minister also indicated that he had submitted to the Tunisian authorities a list of people he wanted to send back to their country.
Referring to the recent sinking of a migrant boat in Greece, he felt that “too many people take reckless risks, often exploited by smugglers who are real criminals whom we must fight”. Ms. Faeser for her part considered it essential to “put an end to these terrible deaths at sea”.
Metal boats and the dangerous maneuvers of the Tunisian coast guard
The increase in migrant crossings to Europe is also explained by new practices of smugglers, explains InfoMigrants. In question, the use of boats of a new kind by these traffickers: “metal skiffs built in less than a day on the beaches for around 1,000 euros each”, reveals the information site.
But these boats, particularly borrowed from Tunisia, are even more unstable and fragile than the long wooden boats or rubber dinghies, already very dangerous in the face of the Mediterranean waves. Only 20 centimeters “separate the migrants from the water. At the first wave that arrives on the boat, it sinks immediately”, warns Jean Janssen, of the Mediterranean rescue NGO ResQship.
These boats are the cause of many shipwrecks in recent months. “The month of April was particularly deadly off Tunisia. A series of shipwrecks left more than 70 dead near the Tunisian coast,” recalls InfoMigrants.
To cross the #Mediterranean from Tunisia ????????, migrants now use metal canoes.
Less stable, they cause many shipwrecks.
Explanations ⤵ pic.twitter.com/aoE2G0Xg5v
— French InfoMigrants (@InfoMigrants_fr) May 12, 2023
The behavior of the Tunisian coastguards is also implicated in these tragedies. According to the testimonies of exiles collected by InfoMigrantsthe Tunisian forces are accused of carrying out dangerous maneuvers near the boats, causing shipwrecks.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 2,406 migrants died or disappeared in the Mediterranean – eastern, central and western – in 2022, an increase of 16.7% over one year. Since the start of 2023, 1,166 deaths or disappearances have already been recorded.
With AFP and Archyde.com
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