13/02/2023 – 07/03/2023

• On February 16, Alarm Phone reported that 33 people who had been signalled as in distress near Sfax were able to reach Italy. On February 19, the Tunisian coast guard rescued more than four hundred migrants off the country’s coast, thwarting 16 crossing attempts. According to the authorities, 71 of them were Tunisians while 352 were nationals of sub-Saharan countries.
• On February 22, President Kaïs Saïed claimed that there is a “conspiracy” underway to transform Tunisia into “a purely African country that has no affiliation with Arab and Islamic nations” through undocumented migration from Sub Saharan countries. The allegations were made during a meeting with the National Security Council dedicated to combating migration from sub-Saharan African countries. Saïed accused migrants of “violence, crime, and unacceptable acts” and stressed the “need to to quickly put an end to this phenomenon.” Detentions of migrants and racist invective online were already on the rise before Saïed’s speech, but his comments drove them to new heights with authorities intensifying their crackdown on migrants. On February 23, Tunisian authorities announced the arrests of 122 sub-Saharan Africans in 24 hours for allegedly residing in Tunisia without documentation, as well as dozens more near the Algerian border. That same day, the Ministry of Social Affairs called on employers to immediately fire any employees without proper papers, adding that it will continue to strengthen its “monitoring campaign” with the interior and employment ministries.
• The Government’s recent crackdown on migrants had already been condemned before Saïed’s inflammatory comments by more than 20 Tunisian and international rights groups that on February 16 accused the Government of “turning a blind eye to the rise of hateful and racist speech” on social networks and in the media. After Saïed’s declaration, Tunisian civil society organisations announced the creation of an “anti-fascist front” to oppose the president’s migrant crackdown.  Four political parties, including Attayar and Ettakatol, also issued a statement denouncing the president’s rhetoric and policies on migration, noting that Tunisian law criminalises racism and hate speech.
• On February 23, New Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar met with the Italian ambassador Fabrizio Saggio to discuss bilateral cooperation. The meeting follows the visit of Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani that took place last month. During his visit, Tajani called on Tunisian authorities to curb the flow of migrants to Italy, describing it as “a plague for Tunisia as it is for Italy.”
• On 16 February, Tunisia launched MIGRADATA, its first National Migration Information System, in the framework of the EU-funded project ProGreS II. Ahlem Hammami, Director General of the National Migration Observatory (ONM), declared that the aim of the project is to provide accurate statistics and unbiased figures on migration as well as unify stakeholders’ working tools to increase coordination and improve data processing and analysis. The new tool will allow to consult and present statistics and indicators on migration, to be shared between the public institutions, research structures, and higher education institutions working on migration.

26/01/2023 – 13/02/2023

• On January 31, Alarm Phone reported the shipwreck of seven boats that had left from Tunisia in bad weather conditions. While 24 people were rescued, 13 went missing. On February 3, another boat was rescued by the Italian Coast Guard after spending six days at sea. Ten people from this boat reportedly lost their lives, including a four-month-old baby and his mother. According to what reported by Alarm Phone on February 6, at least three of the twelve boats headed to Italy that had left Tunisia in the previous week were still missing.
• On January 31, President Saied met with security officials in Zarzis to discuss the migrant tragedy that occurred there last September, when 18 people died in the sinking of a boat carrying migrants off the coast. That tragedy sparked a large social protest against the local authorities’ lack of intervention to search and rescue the ones missing. The regime is currently trying to repress the battle for the truth organised by the families of the missing by threatening to consider their actions as conspiracy against the regime.

15/12/2022-26/01/2023

• Five people died in a shipwreck off the coast of Sfax in the beginning of January 2023. At least 10 remain missing.
• In the whole of 2022, at least 25,020 people were intercepted by Tunisian authorities.

05/10/2022 – 02/11/2022

• 8 people stranded on the islet of Kuriat were intercepted by Tunisian authorities.
• After a shipwreck in the end of September 2022 where 18 people lost their lives off the cost of Zarzis, bodies have now begun to come ashore. Four bodies have been found and identified until now. After the shipwreck, 50 CSOs including EuroMed Rights have co-signed the statement Yet another tragedy of the coast of Zarzis: the search for truth and justice. On 18 October 2022, people protested in the town of Zarzis to demand authorities to keep searching for the bodies of the missing people.
• More Tunisians are resorting to alternative migration routes to reach Europe, to avoid crossing the dangerous sea route and risking being intercepted. The alternative is passing through the Balkan route. Since the beginning of the year, 15,000 Tunisians have entered the EU via the Balkans, passing via Turkey and Serbia.

21/09/2022 – 05/10/2022

• In the beginning of October 2022, several boats left from Tunisia to reach Italy. One boat with 41 people was intercepted and brought back to Sousse, and survivors reported that 3 people had died.  
• On 23 September 2022, a shipwreck took place off the coast of Sfax. Seven people were rescued but 20 are missing.  

19/07/2022 – 21/09/2022

• A shipwreck off the coasts of Tunisia caused the death of at least 11 people, while 12 are still missing. The boat sank off Chebba and 14 people were rescued by the Tunisian authorities.  
• In the beginning of September, EuroMed Rights participated in the CommemorAction that took place in Zarzis and brought together the families of missing migrants. 10 years ago, in September 2012, a boat with 130 people from Sfax sank near Italy. 56 people were rescued, while the others went missing and their families are still searching for them. The CommemorAction aims at remembering all the victims of the border regime and unite the families in the common struggle to fight against deadly borders and for a dignified treatment of the dead. Here is the statement published by the Association of the Mothers of Disappeared Migrants.

28/06/2022-19/07/2022

• On 17 July 2022, Alarm Phone reported about 6 people who were clinging to a buoy near Kerkenah island, in front of Sfax. The Tunisian Coast Guard could not find them, and they haven’t been reachable on the phone since. They are still missing at the time of writing.

07/06/2022 – 27/06/2022

• During the last week, Tunisian authorities recovered the bodies of at least 16 people. The last 4 bodies were recovered on 20 June 2022, after a boat sank off the coasts of Sfax. It is not clear if the bodies are from the same boat that was reported missing by Alarm Phone on the same day.  The other 12 bodies were found in the waters south of Sfax, in a decomposed state, and Tunisian authorities presumed the people had departed from Libya. They fear more bodies will come ashore in the next days.  
• On 6 June 2022, Alarm Phone reported about a distress case with 29 people in the waters between Zarzis and Djerba. The boat caught fire. Authorities could not find the boat and the people are still missing at the time of writing.  
• In the beginning of June, Alarm Phone reported about 47 people in distress off the coasts of Zarzis. The people have been likely intercepted and brought back to Tunisia.  
• In the end of May, 75 people went missing off the coast of Tunisia after a shipwreck. The IOM communicated that the boat had departed from Zuwara, Libya, and sank off the coasts of Sfax, Tunisia. 24 people were rescued, and one body was recovered.  

For the period from June 2021 to May 2022, click here.