Grandstand. While the European Union has just signed the Global Strategic Partnership with Tunisia and seeks to encourage it to welcome refugees sent back by Europe in exchange for the sum of 250 million euros and financial support of 900 million euros conditional on the conclusion of a loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the country is going through a socio-economic crisis exacerbated by an increase in violence against black Africans present on its territory, particularly in the city from Sfax.
Indeed, since July 3, and following the assassination of a Tunisian by three nationals presumed to be of Cameroonian origin, Tunisia has experienced a surge of violence against black Africans. Xenophobic acts, racist actions, hate speech and different forms of aggression jeopardize the physical and moral integrity of sub-Saharan expatriates. On this subject, the media, NGOs and other civil society actors, as well as Tunisian citizens expressing themselves via social networks, are sounding the alarm on a real violation of human rights.
Have been documented: evictions of entire families from their homes – including pregnant women and children – arbitrary arrests, refoulements and arrests, physical and verbal attacks, theft of personal effects and identity documents, direct and virtual attacks on social networks and up to the deportations of hundreds of people – some of them in good standing or asylum seekers – to the Tunisian-Libyan desert borders without any form of assistance, at a time particularly difficult year due to scorching heat and water shortages.
Brain drain
Several press releases, forums and petitions have been signed by a number of organizations, intellectuals, activists and civil society actors in the international media to denounce this unsustainable situation. Fundraisers have been launched to help the victims of these events. We agree with all these statements and would like to show our full support and solidarity with the targets of these actions.
As researchers and citizens from Tunisia, Germany and France, we are committed to a Mediterranean that corresponds to an area of ??exchange, free movement and diversity. Instead, the European migration policy transforms the countries of the southern Mediterranean, and in particular Tunisia, into border guards, while promoting the brain drain to Europe, at a time when the country needs of its skills to deal with the various crises it experiences.
The intention to deport vulnerable individuals and families to a third country, against their will, is in itself inadmissible. Expelling them to Tunisia at a time when the latter is going through significant difficulties on all fronts jeopardizes one of the last stable countries in the region. Isn’t it our goal to mitigate the effects of this crisis and to work so that no one is forced to emigrate anymore? Would circulation become a choice instead of a necessity, in a world where the two shores of the Mediterranean would cooperate with a concern for equality through fairer economic and social conditions? In this case, the European Union must take care to better support the stability of Tunisian society and to consider effective and lasting cooperation, in the interest of both Tunisia and the Europeans.
