(Tunis) Several hundred migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were forcibly evacuated on Friday from camps, set up in front of UN agencies in Tunis, then “deported to the Algerian border”, a spokesperson for the Forum told AFP Tunisian Economic and Social Rights (FTDES).
“At least 300 migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, women and children, were evacuated by force last night,” said Romdhane Ben Amor, stressing that “dozens of others fled previously, for fear of deportation operations.”
Without confirming the evacuations, the Ministry of the Interior issued a press release mentioning “security operations” intended to “deal with attacks on public security and the protection of public and private property”.
The ministry also released a video showing police extracting migrants from tents and destroying some of them and maintenance workers collecting trash and tidying up a park. In another sequence, dozens of migrants walk in tight ranks in the middle of the night in a street, towards an unknown destination, under close control of the police.
According to FTDES, a Tunisian NGO, three improvised camps, set up since at least last summer in front of the headquarters of the High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Organization for Migration (IOM) as well as in a garden in the area du Lac, were emptied of their occupants.
Between 500 and 700 people lived there without running water, electricity or sanitation, many after being kicked out of their homes and jobs in the months following a violent anti-migrant speech in February 2023 by Tunisian President Kais Saied. He denounced the arrival of “hordes of illegal migrants” from sub-Saharan Africa as part of a plot “to change the demographic composition” of the country.
Near the IOM headquarters, AFP filmed garbage collectors cleaning the premises. Humanitarian sources confirmed the evacuation at this location which took place around 10 p.m. (Eastern time) in the morning, according to police officers.
Buses supervised by the police took the people to “transfer them to the Algerian border”, according to testimonies collected by the FTDES. “But a certain number managed to escape before arriving in the Beja region” (northwest), close to Algeria, according to Mr. Ben Amor.
The FTDES “is concerned knowing that among them there are vulnerable populations […] people in need of medical assistance, who had already been living in inhumane conditions for months,” added Mr. Ben Amor.
According to the spokesperson, these operations follow directly from a meeting Thursday in Rome of the interior ministers of Italy, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya.
The head of the Italian government Giorgia Meloni recently visited Tunisia to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the fight against illegal immigration.
Tunisia is one of the main departure points, along with Libya, for illegal emigration to Italy.
Mme Meloni will be the head of the list of his far-right party Fratelli d’Italia in the European elections at the beginning of June where the migration issue will be hotly debated.