TUNIS: More migrants in Tunisia opted to be sent back to their home countries in recent months according to the International Migration Organization, amid rising anti-migrant sentiment and European pressure to curb migration.
“Between January 1 and June 25, 2024, IOM facilitated the voluntary return of around 3,500 people from Tunisia to their country of origin,” a spokesperson for the organization told AFP on Wednesday.
The IOM’s “voluntary humanitarian return program,” which provides free return flights to migrants and help reintegrating into their home countries, saw a 200 percent increase in sign-ups compared to the same period in 2023.
The migrants, who ventured to Tunisia in the hopes of crossing to Europe, are primarily returning to The Gambia, Burkina Faso and Guinea.
Rights groups have criticized the program, saying the returns are not truly voluntary if migrants are being pressured into leaving.
Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesperson for the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), said the returns take place as a result of “anti-migrant policy, which sees them as a threat.”
People are made precarious, he said, “by preventing them from working, renting apartments or using public transport.”
Anti-migrant violence broke out last year after President Kais Saied gave a speech saying “hordes of illegal migrants” posed a demographic threat to Tunisia.
Hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans were subsequently kicked out of their jobs and homes.
Their living conditions worsened as they were chased out of cities such as Sfax and were forced to create makeshift settlements in less populated areas, where they waited to cross the Mediterranean.
Tunisia and the EU last summer reached a “strategic partnership” through which Tunis received financial aid worth 105 million euros ($112 million) in return for efforts to deter migrant departures.
Ben Amor said the hike in “voluntary” repatriations is a direct result of the EU’s policy of countering irregular migration.
“The EU has given all the financial, logistical and technical means” to Tunisia to implement the policy, he said.
Tunisia and neighboring Libya are major departure points for migrants attempting perilous sea crossings to Europe.
According to the Tunisian Interior Ministry, around 23,000 irregular migrants are currently present in the country.
More than 1,300 people died or disappeared last year in shipwrecks off the North African country, according to FTDES.
Migrant repatriations in Tunisia surging in 2024: IOM
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Migrant repatriations in Tunisia surging in 2024: IOM
- “Between January 1 and June 25, 2024, IOM facilitated the voluntary return of around 3,500 people from Tunisia to their country of origin,” an IMO spokesperson said
- The IOM’s “voluntary humanitarian return program” saw a 200 percent increase in sign-ups compared to the same period in 2023
Hezbollah chief says supports state diplomacy to stop Israeli aggression
- The state has chosen “diplomacy to end the aggression and implement” a November 2024 ceasefire deal “and we support it continuing in this direction,” Qassem said
- “They want to eliminate our existence,” Qassem said, but “we will defend ourselves”
BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Friday said his group supported the Lebanese state’s pursuit of diplomacy to end Israeli attacks, while also criticizing the inclusion of a civilian representative in recent talks with Israel.
The state has chosen “diplomacy to end the aggression and implement” a November 2024 ceasefire deal “and we support it continuing in this direction,” Qassem said in a televised address.
Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks in decades on Wednesday under the auspices of the year-old ceasefire monitoring mechanism, a move Lebanon’s president said was to avoid prospects of another war in Lebanon.
Qassem criticized the move and urged authorities to reconsider.
“We consider this measure an additional misstep on top of the sin” of the government’s decision in August to task the army with disarming Hezbollah, he said.
“Have you made a gratuitous concession? This concession will not change the enemy’s position, nor its aggression or occupation,” Qassem said, accusing Israel and the United States of wanting Lebanese authorities to be negotiating “under fire.”
“They want to eliminate our existence,” Qassem said, but “we will defend ourselves, our people, our country. We are prepared to sacrifice everything, and we will not surrender.”
He accused Israel of violating the year-old ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and his Iran-backed group, which emerged heavily weakened with its arsenal pummelled and senior commanders killed including former chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Qassem said his group was cooperating with the Lebanese authorities, and that America and Israel should have “no say in how we manage our domestic affairs,” calling their imposition of conditions on Lebanon as “unacceptable.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has said the new talks were strictly limited to fully implementing last year’s truce and did not amount to broader peace discussions.
