TUNIS: The number of Tunisian migrants landing on Italian shores jumped 23 percent to 13,500 in the first eight months of 2022 from the same period last year, a rights group said on Tuesday, adding Tunisia’s political and economic crisis lay behind the exodus.
Videos posted on social media showed entire families embarking on boats this summer amid a sharp rise in the number of sailings from Tunisian coasts as the country’s economic crisis deepened.
Ramadan Ben Omar, an official in the Tunisian Forum of Economic and Social Rights, said that 2,600 minors, 640 women and 500 Tunisian families arrived on the Italian coasts in boats this year.
He added that the number of people drowned off the Tunisian coast this year was about 570.
Tunisia is in the throes of an economic and social crisis which threatens to bankrupt public finances, while inflation has reached 8.6 percent, its highest in three decades.
“The bad economic situation is no longer a sole reason for rise of illegal journey toward Italy... There is also a stifling political crisis and a decline in freedoms, in addition to social tension and loss of hope among Tunisians,” Ben Omar told Reuters.
Efforts to rescue the economy have been complicated by Tunisia’s political upheavals since President Kais Saied seized most powers a year ago, shutting down parliament and moving to rule by decree, a move described by the opposition as a coup.
Saied has said the moves were needed to end political paralysis, and he enshrined his expanded role in a new constitution that was passed in a referendum in July on a low turnout of 30.5 percent.
The Tunisian authorities prevented more than 23,500 Tunisians from reaching the Italian coasts by thwarting about 1,800 crossings, Ben Omar said.
The interior ministry was not immediately available to comment on the assertion that the increase in migration was fueled by the country’s political and economic situation.
Human traffickers increasingly use the Tunisian Mediterranean towns of Sfax, Zarzis and Mahdia as launch pads for migrants heading by boat to Europe.
More Tunisian migrants head to Italy amid political and economic crisis
https://arab.news/bh6yh
More Tunisian migrants head to Italy amid political and economic crisis
- Videos posted on social media showed entire families embarking on boats this summer
- The bad economic situation is no longer a sole reason for rise of illegal journey toward Italy
Family of Palestinian-American shot dead by Israeli settler demand accountability
- Relatives say Abu Siyam was among about 30 residents from the village of Mukhmas who confronted armed settlers attempting to steal goats from the community
LONDON: The family of a 19-year-old Palestinian-American man reportedly shot dead by an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank have demanded accountability, amid mounting scrutiny over a surge in settler violence and a lack of prosecutions.
Nasrallah Abu Siyam, a US citizen born in Philadelphia, was killed near the city of Ramallah on Wednesday, becoming at least the sixth American citizen to die in incidents involving Israeli settlers or soldiers in the territory in the past two years.
Relatives say Abu Siyam was among about 30 residents from the village of Mukhmas who confronted armed settlers attempting to steal goats from the community. Witnesses said that stones were thrown by both sides before settlers opened fire, wounding at least three villagers.
Abu Siyam was struck and later died of his injuries.
Abdulhamid Siyam, the victim’s cousin, said the killing reflected a wider pattern of impunity.
“A young man of 19 shot and killed in cold blood, and no responsibility,” he told the BBC. “Impunity completely.”
The US State Department said that it was aware of the death of a US citizen and was “carefully monitoring the situation,” while the Trump administration said that it stood ready to provide consular assistance.
The Israeli embassy in Washington said the incident was under review and that an operational inquiry “must be completed as soon as possible.”
A spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces said troops were deployed to the scene and used “riot dispersal means to restore order,” adding that no IDF gunfire was reported.
The military confirmed that the incident remained under review and said that a continued presence would be maintained in the area to prevent further unrest.
Palestinians and human rights organizations say such reviews rarely lead to criminal accountability, arguing that Israeli authorities routinely fail to prosecute settlers accused of violence.
A US embassy spokesperson later said that Washington “condemns this violence,” as international concern continues to grow over conditions in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinians and human rights groups say Israeli authorities routinely fail to investigate or prosecute settlers accused of violence against civilians.
Those concerns were echoed this week by the UN, which warned that Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank may amount to ethnic cleansing.
A UN human rights office report on Thursday said that Israeli settlement expansion, settler attacks and military operations have increasingly displaced Palestinian communities, with dozens of villages reportedly emptied since the start of the Gaza war.
The report also criticized Israeli military tactics in the northern West Bank, saying that they resembled warfare and led to mass displacement, while noting abuses by Palestinian security forces, including the use of unnecessary lethal force and the intimidation of critics.
Neither Israel’s foreign ministry nor the Palestinian Authority has commented on the findings.
