Human Rights Watch calls on European Union to ‘end support’ to Tunisia after ‘serious abuses’ against migrants

migrant victims of “beatings”of “arbitrary detentions”of “theft of money and personal effects”. Human Rights Watch is alarmed, in a report published Wednesday, July 19, of a safe place in Tunisia for black African migrants. The non-governmental organization (NGO) identifies “serious abuse” committed in recent months by the Tunisian authorities. In police stations, some victims suffered in particular “electric shocks” and arrests “arbitrary based on their skin color”.

Twenty testimonies of “victims of human rights violations”, cited in this report, call into question “police, military and coast guard”. Among these 20 people interviewed, eight of them are still in Tunisia while nine others have returned to their countries of origin, repatriated by air in March. Others bear witness to their expulsion and their transfer by force, in a group of “1,200 Africans”, to the borders with Libya and Algeria, at the beginning of July. Testimonies collected by the NGO show that they were left without water, food or shelter in the middle of the desert.

According to the report, “the majority of abuses documented took place after President Kais Saied’s February 21 speech”where he denounced the arrival of “horses of migrants” came, according to him, “changing the demographic composition” from Tunisia. These “serious abuse” should encourage the European Union to “stop supporting” in Tunis, again according to Human Rights Watch. According to an agreement unveiled on Sunday, Brussels has undertaken to pay Tunis at least 105 million euros, specifically earmarked to fight against irregular immigration, as well as budgetary aid of 150 million euros.