The inhuman and degrading treatment of black Africans in Tunisia is the result of institutional racism and the externalization of European migration policies, believe the signatory organizations of the declaration reproduced below.
The undersigned organizations express their deep concern and indignation about the deleterious situation in Tunisia, especially in recent days in the city of Sfax.
Since the death of a Tunisian national, presumably at the hands of nationals of sub-Saharan origin, which occurred on July 3, 2023 during a scuffle, this city has been the scene of clashes between part of the population whitewashed by campaigns hatred on social networks, and exiles from sub-Saharan Africa settled in this city, targeted. This is in addition to the serious racist and xenophobic events that the country has already experienced in March 2023, which notably led to the death of three people of sub-Saharan origin.
The racist and hateful speech […], pronounced by the Tunisian President in February 2023, only encouraged these abuses and gave a blank check to the serious violence exercised against exiled people. And it is indeed the attitude of local and national authorities that is in question, giving free rein to the false information that abounds on social networks, but also to the violence of certain groups – police, soldiers or from the population -, to towards black exiles, ferociously attacked and raped with impunity.
Many testimonies, in particular from the first concerned, from civil society associations in Tunisia but also from foreign media, thus report serious human rights violations against them: violent and arbitrary arrests, defenestrations, attacks on bladed weapons… These actors denounce a real “hunt for migrants.es” and raids, followed by the forced return of a thousand people to the borders with Libya or Algeria, the objective of the Tunisian authorities seeming to be to bring together exiles from sub-Saharan Africa at these borders to abandon them there. without any assistance or means of subsistence, including when it comes to asylum seekers. Raids preceded or accompanied by arbitrary evictions from their homes, destruction or theft of their property, inhuman and degrading treatment, as well as physical violence. Violations of rights committed by public forces and/or private militias that are widely documented, but which remain to this day without conviction for their perpetrators from the courts or state authorities.
All this takes place in the context of an unprecedented crisis in Tunisia, affecting all areas: economic, social, political, institutional, financial… A crisis accentuated by the pressures and bargaining of the European Union (EU), which intends via a “strengthened” but unequal partnership in migration matters, impose on Tunisia the outsourcing of border controls and migration management.
This repressive policy involves the return from European countries of all exiles without the right to stay who have transited through Tunisia, thus designated as a “safe country”, unlike Libya. This, on the grounds of making Tunisia the border guard of the EU, in charge of containing “undesirable” migration and keeping them as far away as possible from European territory, in exchange for substantial financial aid coming at the right time. (at least €900,000). All this despite the concerns aroused by the authoritarian drift observed in Tunisia and in defiance of the rule of law and the fundamental rights of people exiled in Tunisia.
This crisis also aggravated by the ambiguity of the Algerian authorities, who exploit the migration issue for political reasons by diverting people of sub-Saharan origin from Algeria – which has land borders with the countries of sub-Saharan Africa – towards Tunisia, which has none.
We express our full solidarity with all the victims of the violence, whatever their nationality, condemn this racist violence wherever it comes from, and express our indignation at the deafening and complicit silence of the Tunisian authorities.
We urge Tunisia to assume the responsibilities incumbent on it by protecting exiles on its territory from any abuse, by putting an end to this racist violence and the refoulements carried out illegally at the Tunisian borders, and to comply with international law. .
Finally, we denounce with the greatest vigor the pressure exerted by the EU on Tunisia within the framework of an unequal and bargained cooperation with a view to imposing on this Mediterranean country its ultra-secure policy in terms of immigration and asylum. , in defiance of international law and the rights of exiled people.
