On March 26, at least 29 migrants died when two boats sank off the coast of Tunisia as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy. On March 22, at least five migrants diedand dozens more were missing after their boat sank off Tunisia’s coast. They were trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Italy. On March 9, more than one thousand migrants arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa from North Africa. The migrants — reportedly from Syria, Yemen, and various African countries — had started their journeys from the Tunisian coastal city of Sfax. One of the several boats leaving from Sfax capsized on its way to Italy causing the death of 14 people. According to what reported by Mediterranea and by Alarm Phone, the Tunisian coast guard attacked 5 of the several boats fleeing Tunisia, stealing their engines and leaving them adrift. According to InfoMigrants, between March 7 and 8, the Tunisian coastguard reportedly prevented 14 attempts to cross the sea and rescued 435 migrants overnight.
According to what reported by Sfax regional health offices on March 29, the morgue in the city is filled beyond capacity with bodies of sub-Saharan African migrants who have died off of Tunisia’s coast in recent days, as migration tragedies continue to occur with horrifying regularity.
On March 29, more than one hundred asylum seekers protested outside a UN building in Tunis to demand that they be repatriated or transferred to another country to escape persecution in Tunisia.
According to new data published by the Italian Ministry of the Interior on March 13, at least 12,083 people left Tunisian shores headed to Italy since the beginning of 2023, a substantial increase if compared to the 1,360 arrivals that were registered during this same period last year. According to the new figures, the Tunisian route now ranks as the main country of departure for reaching Italy, followed by the Libyan route.
On March 20, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell voiced alarm over the possibility that the worrying situation in Tunisia might increase migration flows to Europe. Borrell stated that it is imperative to quickly “avoid economic and social collapse” and that he would send two members of the Foreign Affairs Council to Tunisia to assess and report on the situation. Tunisia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs challenged Borrell’s remarks, describing them as “disproportionate both in view of the well-established resilience of the Tunisian people throughout their history, and in relation to a migratory threat to Europe from the south.” On the other hand, the ministry welcomed “the constructive support of several partners, including neighboring Italy,” that has recently been pushing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to approve its provisional $1.9 billion loan to Tunisia, fearful that without the cash destabilization in the country might unleash new waves of migrants to Europe.
Following President Saïed’s racist statements and the subsequent crackdown on migrants in the country, the World Bank is suspending talks on its future engagement with Tunisia. Similar concerns came from the IMF that, nevertheless, remains engaged with Tunisia and is working towards its $1.9 billion loan to the country. Several other international organizations, national Governments and private companies have condemned the recent events in Tunisia. UN Secretary General António Guterres released a statement with the IOM declaring that he was deeply shocked by the lack of consideration of migrants dignity and of the fact that they are human beings with human rights. The African Union postponed a conference that was set to take place in the country this month. The Biden administration declared that the United States is deeply concerned by the President’s remarks regarding migration from Sub-Saharan Africa and urged Tunisian authorities to meet their obligations under international law to protect the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants. Meta reportedly blocked several Facebook accounts and groups in Tunisia that were being used to spread racist speech and calls for violence against migrants.
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