Tunisia (Union)
Tunisian Interior Minister Khaled Nouri said yesterday that the Tunisian Coast Guard intercepted more than 74,000 migrants at sea on their way to European coasts during the first half of this year.
As the minister explained, this number is higher than the number of migrants arrested in the entire year 2022 on the Tunisian coast, which amounted to about 45,000.
Al-Nouri added, in press statements, while participating in the Trans-Mediterranean Migration Forum in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, that efforts to combat irregular migration cost the Tunisian state more than 103 million euros directed to the National Guard administration alone, without counting the rest of the losses. Thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan African countries come to Tunisia, wishing to cross the Mediterranean in search of better life opportunities in European countries.
The government points to the dangerous repercussions of these influxes on the country’s economy and the environmental, health and agricultural sectors, as most migrants sleep in the open in forests and olive groves near the coasts of the Sfax governorate in particular.
The European Union signed a memorandum of understanding with Tunisia in July 2023 to limit migrant flows to nearby Italian coasts.
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