More than 1,300 migrants who left the Tunisian coast to try to reach Europe clandestinely died at sea in 2023, the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), a Tunisian NGO specializing in migration issues, announced on Tuesday.
In total “1,313 people died or disappeared off the Tunisian coast, a figure never reached in Tunisia,” Islem Ghaarbi, a migration expert at FTDES, told the press.
The expert, who specified that at least two-thirds of the victims were from sub-Saharan Africa, stressed that this disastrous toll “is equivalent to approximately half of the deaths and missing in the Mediterranean” in 2023.
More than 2,498 people died or went missing in 2023 in the central Mediterranean, 75% more than the previous year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
More minors
The president of the forum, Romdhan Ben Omar, explained that the migration rate of minors had also increased over the past year, to 26% in 2023, compared to 17% in 2022.
“More than 4,600 minors crossed the borders illegally,” he detailed, stressing that the migration rate among women also increased in 2023 to reach 8% compared to 2022.
In this context, Ben Amor stressed the need to establish “a national migration policy that preserves the rights of migrants”, noting that the authority “has closed the door to dialogue on this issue”.
The departures of sub-Saharan nationals accelerated in Tunisia after a speech in February 2023 by President Kais Saied, denouncing the arrival of “hordes of illegal migrants” whom he had presented as a demographic threat to his country.
On the sidelines of the Italy-Africa summit, which was held on January 28 and 29 in Rome, he declared to the official Tunisian press agency (TAP) that Tunisia “will not accept the settlement of migrants on its territory “.
According to a report by the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) published in December 2023, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Tunisia suffer “daily institutional violence”, with “arbitrary arrests”, “forced displacement” and “illegal evictions”.
The 58-page study, which cites direct testimonies and from partner NGOs, points the finger at “the responsibility” of the Tunisian authorities in “violations committed on the territory, including border areas”.
“By transferring migrants to the border and pushing them towards Algeria, the Tunisian authorities attempted collective expulsions, prohibited by the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights,” Human Rights Watch (HRW ) had already warned ) in July.
A visible increase in Sfax
Last week, 13 Sudanese refugees died and 27 others went missing after their makeshift boat sank on Thursday from the coast near Sfax (center-east) to attempt to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, whose coasts the closest are less than 150 kilometers away.
The port city of Sfax is one of the main departure points for illegal migrants to Italy, 150 km away, which saw the arrival of more than 150,000 illegal immigrants in 2023, an increase of more than 60% compared to 2022.
The worsening economic situation in Tunisia with growth estimated at 1.2% for 2023 (half of 2022) and youth unemployment at 38%, are also decisive factors in the massive emigration of Tunisians.
In 2023, they represented the second nationality of illegal migrants arriving in Italy (17,304 people) just behind Guineans (18,204), according to the Italian Interior Ministry.
