Two weeks after one of the worst shipwrecks of a migrant boat in the Mediterranean, European leaders are discussing Thursday in Brussels the finalization of an agreement with Tunisia intended in particular to prevent these crossings and to fight against smugglers.
The European Commission hoped to conclude before this EU summit a memorandum of understanding with Tunis to implement a “global partnership” including a migration component. With the aim of then extending this type of partnership to other countries in the Mediterranean region.
But the discussions with Tunis, sensitive, are proving longer than expected and should resume Monday, after the great Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
The partnership, which also includes strengthening economic and trade ties and cooperation on green energy, is accompanied by financial support amounting to more than one billion euros.
It was announced on June 11 during a visit to Tunis by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, accompanied by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte.
However, it raises the concerns of some Member States because of the autocratic drift of President Kais Saied and the human rights situation in this country, which is in the grip of a serious socio-economic crisis.
European aid is partly linked to the granting by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of a loan of 2 billion dollars under negotiation, subject to conditions.
But since the trio’s visit, President Saied has been repeating that Tunisia will not be Europe’s “border guard” and will not bow to what he describes as the “dictates” of the IMF.
He refuses the reforms recommended by the Fund providing for the restructuring of more than 100 heavily indebted public companies and the lifting of state subsidies on certain basic products.
In detail, the European aid announced includes a loan of up to 900 million euros, but also budgetary aid of 150 million euros and a package of 105 million euros for the management of migration for 2023.
The EU plans to deliver boats, mobile radars, cameras and vehicles to Tunisia by the summer to help it strengthen control of its maritime and land borders. Increased police and judicial cooperation is planned to fight against smuggling networks.
The agreement also aims to return more easily to Tunisia nationals of this country who are in an irregular situation in the EU. The EU also finances the “voluntary” returns of sub-Saharan African migrants from Tunisia to their countries of origin: 407 returns have been financed in this way since the beginning of the year, according to the Commission.
Tunisia, some stretches of coastline of which are less than 150 km from the Italian island of Lampedusa, frequently records attempts to leave migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan African countries, for Italy.
Arrivals on the Italian coasts are up sharply: more than 60,000 since the start of the year (133% compared to the same period in 2022), according to the UNHCR. Half of these arrivals come from Tunisia, the rest from Libya and Turkey.
The central Mediterranean – between North Africa and Italy – is also the most dangerous migration route in the world (more than 20,000 deaths since 2014 according to the IOM). On June 22, a week after the shipwreck off the Peloponnese of an old trawler from Libya which left at least 82 dead and hundreds missing, a migrant boat from Sfax in Tunisia capsized off Lampedusa, making about forty missing.
These tragedies have brought out the criticism of NGOs on an increasingly restrictive European migration policy and the absence of “legal channels for migration”.
Evelien van Roemburg, director of Oxfam’s European office, called the partnership with Tunisia a “wobbly idea”, denouncing “Europe’s attempts to outsource its responsibilities in managing migration”. “Experience has shown that this type of agreement does not work,” she told AFP.
The EU signed a controversial migration deal with Turkey in 2016, in the wake of the 2015 refugee crisis.
Furthermore, the EU cooperates with the Libyan coast guard, which is regularly denounced by NGOs and the UN because of the ill-treatment to which migrants intercepted at sea and forcibly brought back to Libya are subjected.
29/06/2023 04:33:32 – Bruxelles (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
