Tunisian security services have committed “serious abuses” against black African migrants in recent months. Human Rights Watch (HRW) writes this in a research published Wednesday. Not only does HRW hold the Tunisian authorities responsible for systematic abuses of black African migrants, they also fail to provide decent legal protection for victims of forced evictions and racist attacks. In fact, “such efforts are blocked”.
For the investigation, the human rights organization collected more than twenty testimonials from migrants from Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Sudan. Among them are also several migrants from the group of 1,200 black Africans who were brought to the borders with Libya and Algeria by Tunisian security forces in early July. The report speaks of beatings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, wrongful evictions and even cases of torture. Tunisian authorities also regularly take money and personal belongings from migrants. Many of them, according to the testimonies, were left in the middle of the desert without water or food. Human Rights Watch holds the Tunisian police, army and national guard, including the coast guard, responsible for the abuses.
The NGO urges the European Union to end its financial support to Tunisia in the fight against illegal immigration. Last week, under the watchful eye of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a migration agreement was signed between Tunisia and the European Union in the Tunisian capital Tunis. The agreement should ensure fewer migrant boats from Tunisia to Europe. Rutte described the deal as a “true milestone” According to him, the political agreement will “have a real impact”. The harsh criticism, including from human rights organizations — the Refugee Foundation spoke of “refugees as political currency” — Rutte ignored him by stating that the agreements made fall within the international treaties.
No ‘safe third country’
Yet the agreement contains no serious guarantees that the Tunisian authorities will not perpetuate human rights violations, particularly at the expense of black migrants. Human Rights Watch fears that the financial and material support from the EU included in the deal will reach organizations responsible for human rights violations.
In the absence of such guarantees, the European Union is complicit in human rights abuses and the “suffering of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Tunisia,” according to HRW. The human rights organization appeals to the individual EU member states, which have yet to approve the agreement. Without a thorough human rights test, the NGO argues, EU member states would refrain from supporting the deal. Human Rights Watch does not regard Tunisia as a “safe third country”, as the country is presented by the Dutch government, among others.
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