Minister of the Interior Kamel Feki chaired, Friday, November 17, 2023, in Nefta, governorate of Tozeur, the inauguration ceremony of the Joint Training Center in Integrated Border Management in the presence of his Austrian counterpart Gerhard Karner, the Minister of Danish Immigration Kaare Dybvad Bek and the Ambassador of the Netherlands in Tunis, Josephine Frantzen, European partner countries of the project. An Austrian newspaper reports on the event in the article below.
The migration agreement concluded this summer between the European Union (EU) and Tunisia “is slowly starting to produce its effects”, declared Thursday, November 16, 2023, the Minister of the Interior of Austria Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) during a three-day trip to our country. According to Frontex, 1,652 people left Tunisia for Europe in October, compared to 16,396 in September. Austria wants to make its contribution by training [Tunisian, Editor’s note] border guards.
However, getting the migration deal off the ground was not easy. Several European institutions have criticized the agreement, which stipulates that the European Commission (EC) could provide financial aid of up to 900 million euros to the economically hard-hit country. Tunis itself repaid 60 million euros in budget aid in October, and Interior Minister Kamel Feki said: “Under no circumstances can Tunisia serve as a border guard for other countries.”
Shortly after the announcement of the agreement, there was a sort of “panic”, but the agreement is now bringing its first results. “It is important that we support Tunisia in protecting the borders; she can count on our support,” declared Karner, who had a meeting with his Tunisian counterpart Kamel Feki last Thursday. This is done “on an equal footing” and cooperation with the third country is going well, the Austrian minister stressed. He added: “I have always said: the security of the continent rather than rescue at sea. People should not even undertake the dangerous journey across the sea.”
Last year, Austria counted 13,126 asylum applications from Tunisia, compared to 348 this year after the removal of the visa waiver in November 2022. The bilateral meeting also included the signing of an agreement on disaster relief. “This is rapid, non-bureaucratic assistance, ” Karner emphasized. Countries such as Germany, Italy, and Spain have already concluded such agreements.
The central point of the trip was the opening, on Friday, November 17, of a training center for border guards.
Austria and Denmark jointly funded the center, which can accommodate 200 future border guards. Austria contributed almost one million euros. Karner and the Danish Minister of Migration, Kaare Dybvad Bek, presented their certificates to the first 15 graduates on this occasion. “We think the same way as the Danes, despite the different party families,” Karner said of his social democratic counterpart.
Karner explains why Austria is going its own way despite the agreement with the EU: “The EU has a global responsibility, but each member state also has a responsibility. We want to send a signal here and move the issue forward.”
The project was coordinated by the Vienna-based International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), under the leadership of former ÖVP Vice-Chancellor Michael Spindelegger. The next step is to expand sanitary facilities and a sports field; the Netherlands also announced its participation in the project. “We don’t give you (ICMPD, editor’s note) money and say ‘do something with it’, it’s a concrete task of the project,” Karner assured. Different modules are part of the training, including one on how human rights are respected.
