Sunday, July 23, 2023

Migrants face misery in Tunisia. Rights activists fear that the EU deal will make things even worse

• Saturday, July 22, 2023

Migrants face misery in Tunisia. Rights activists fear that the EU deal will make things even worse© Provided by The Canadian Press

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Migrants in Tunisia’s port city of Sfax who are aiming to make Europe their new home are now sharing the burden and the blame for escalating tensions deeply tinged with racism, amid the fears of European leaders who are trying to stanch the numbers of people arriving at their shores.

The antagonism that exploded in recent weeks in Sfax between Tunisians and mainly Black sub-Saharan migrants is widely seen as a turning point in how this North African nation deals with migration.

European leaders are offering millions to Tunisia amid the abuses, and activists fear a migration summit in Rome on Sunday will pursue an anti-migrant vision that puts the onus on Africa to keep Africans out of Europe.

Hundreds of migrants have drowned at sea trying to reach Italy in fragile boats, but now migrants awaiting their chance to cross the Mediterranean cower in fear, some beaten or bused by authorities to new destinations, others dumped in the desert.

Musa Khalid from Congo was among a group of migrants expelled from Tunisia and found by Libyan border guards huddling in a barren zone last weekend. He said that Tunisian officials took their belongings and money before transferring them out of the Tunisian port city of Sfax and dropping them off without food or water.

“As we tried to enter Tunisia again, they beat us badly. They broke my hand and hit my head," he told the Associated Press near the Al Assa border point in Libya, holding up a wrist wrapped in cloth. "We are in the desert now for several days. Sir, please.”

Human rights activists from North Africa, West Africa and Europe met in Tunis this week and denounced the upcoming Rome meeting, predicting that it will amount to a bartering of values for financial incentives to stave off migrants from European shores.

“Today, the Mediterranean’s calling is no longer to be a bridge between two shores, but a wall separating all of Europe from all of the African continent,” said the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, which organized the Thursday meeting.

Italy is trying to decrease the number of migrant arrivals and stabilize Tunisia, in its worst economic crisis in a generation. Thousands of migrants have arrived in Sfax this year, but there's no solid figure of how many are in the city, or how many have left since the anti-migrant campaign started.

Tunisia has become the main stepping stone to Italy, Europe's gateway, replacing Libya, where widespread abuse of migrants has been reported. Of the 76,325 migrant arrivals in Italy so far this year until last Sunday, 44,151 took the sea route from Tunisia compared to 28,842 leaving from Libya, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

That is pushing up numbers in the reception center in Italy’s southernmost island of Lampedusa, with officials saying 2,500 people were at the site on Sunday following the arrival of 266 overnight.


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President Kais Saied, Tunisia’s increasingly authoritarian leader, stoked racist reactions to migrants in February, saying that sub-Saharan Africans arriving in huge numbers are part of a plot to erase Tunisia’s Islamic identity. He has since tried to walk back such pronouncements, denying racist views and saying the migrant issue must be treated at its roots.

That’s one intent of the Rome conference, which will gather nearly 20 heads of state and government or ministers from the Middle East to the Sahel and North Africa, along with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and an array of financial institutions.

The one-day summit is part of Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s efforts to position Italy at the center of issues impacting the Mediterranean. The conference aims to come up with concrete proposals to decrease migration numbers by addressing the root causes, while combating migrant trafficking. It will also discuss energy policies, including ways to diversify energy sources, and climate change.

It's widely viewed by human rights advocates as a road map for what is to come.

The Rome summit comes a week after Saied signed a memorandum of understanding for a “comprehensive strategic partnership” in a meeting that included Meloni and von der Leyen. Financial details weren't released, but the EU has held out the promise of nearly 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) to help restart Tunisia’s hobbled economy, and 100 million euros ($111 million) for border control as well as search and rescue missions at sea and repatriating immigrants without residence permits.

Despite signing the deal, the Tunisian president has stressed in the past that Tunisia won't become Europe’s border guard or serve as a land of resettlement.

Human rights organizations say that bartering money for lives is a betrayal of values. For some opponents, such deals are a new form of neo-colonialism.

“The EU risks not only perpetuating (human rights abuses) but also emboldening repressive rulers, who can brag about warmer relations with European partners while claiming credit for securing financial support for their failing economies," New York-based Human Rights Watch said ahead of the Rome summit.

With high hopes smashed, migrants cower in fear of the anti-migrant backlash that has forced many from their shelters in Sfax and onto buses to unknown parts.

Tunisian security forces had dumped at least 500 migrants in the desert border zone with Libya earlier this month, but they were transferred July 10 to other regions of Tunisia, according to the Red Crescent.

Some were forgotten.

Libyan border guards said on June 16 that in the past few days they had found at least six men and women and children stranded under temperatures above 40 C (104 F). That is in addition to a group they came across that day, when they rescued migrants who had been huddling in the hot desert for several days near the Al Assa border point. The scene was filmed by The Associated Press.

“There are people affected as a result of the cruelty and beating ... by Tunisian border guards,” said commander of Al-Assa Desert Border Guard, Maj. Ayman Al-Qadri, carefully adding that he was citing migrants’ statements.

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Elaine Ganley reported from Paris. Colleen Barry contributed to this report from Milan.

Bouazza Ben Bouazza And Elaine Ganley, The Associated Press

Italy's Meloni seeks broad cooperation to stanch flows of migrants to Europe with aid to Africa


• Saturday, July 22, 2023


ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni on Sunday called for new, more equal relationships between Europe and migrants’ countries of origin and transit as she convened a summit of some 20 nations, EU officials and international organizations aimed at stanching flows of illegal migration.

The one-day conference is a Meloni initiative that aims to make Italy a leader in resolving issues impacting Mediterranean nations. Chief among them is migration, as Italy sustains hundreds of new arrivals daily on Europe's southern border, but also energy as Europe looks to Africa and the Middle East to permanently replace Russian supplies.

Human rights groups see the meeting, which includes nations from both northern and sub-Saharan Africa as well as the Middle East, as creating a future roadmap, and worry it will amount to anti-migrant policies that put the onus on Africa to keep Africans out of Europe.

Meloni told the opening meeting that Western arrogance had likely stood in the way of solutions to the migrant issue. She proposed four main prongs for future cooperation: fighting criminal organizations trafficking migrants, better managing flows of migrants, supporting refugees and helping countries of origin.

“The West too often has given the impression of being more interested in giving lessons rather than lending a hand,’’ Meloni said. “It is probably this diffidence that has made it difficult to make progress on solutions.”

She said if flows were better managed there would be more room for legal migration. In her closing press conference, Meloni emphasized that there were no legal means of entry for many people who might have a case for refugee status, because quotas are filled by those who arrive illegally.

"Until yesterday, we had the mentality that said migration cannot be limited, it is a right, borders don't exist. That is not my approach because borders exist, migration must be managed,'' Meloni said.

She said the participants welcomed the conference's concrete, goal-oriented approach, and noted that the United Arab Emirates had pledged 100 million euros to help improve conditions in countries where poverty and a lack of services is pushing emigration.

“In an era where so much attention is given to the right to migrate, we are not paying sufficient attention to the right to not be forced to emigrate, to not be forced to flee their own homes, to not be forced to abandon their land and leave family members in search of a new life," Meloni said during opening remarks.

The conference comes against the backdrop of migrants being pushed back from Tunisia into Libya, where they are stuck in the desert, many exposed to the harsh elements.

Pope Francis, in his traditional Sunday blessing, called on leaders in Europe and Africa to find a solution to the thousands of people who are blocked at borders in North Africa.

“Thousands of them have been experiencing indescribable suffering for weeks, and have been trapped and abandoned in deserts,'' the pontiff said. “May the Mediterranean no longer be a theater of death and inhumanity,’’ the pope said, calling for a sense of “fraternity, solidarity and welcoming.”

The Rome summit comes a week after one of the key participants, Tunisian President Kais Saied, signed a memorandum of understanding for a “comprehensive strategic partnership” in a meeting that included Meloni and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Financial details weren’t released, but the EU has held out the promise of nearly 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) to help restart Tunisia’s hobbled economy, and 100 million euros ($111 million) for border control as well as search and rescue missions at sea and repatriating immigrants without residence permits.

Saied told the conference said that Tunisia would not allow Europe-bound migrants to settle in the country and that Tunisia will not be a “corridor for outlaws.”

He called for the establishment of a new global financial institution to tackle the root causes of migration and create prosperity and hope in poor countries.

Migrants pay traffickers thousands to make the perilous journey across Africa’s deserts. Many report suffering torture and other abuse along the way. And hundreds drown each year at sea trying to reach Europe in fragile boats.

More than 1,900 migrants have died or gone missing and are presumed missing in the Mediterranean so far this year, bringing the total of dead and missing since 2014 to 27,675, according to the International Organization for Migration. A further 483 are dead or missing in Africa this year.

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Follow AP’s coverage of global migration and hub link at https://apnews.com/hub/migration.
The Associated Press

Tunisia migration deal a model for others, EU's von der Leyen says



Reuters
Sun, July 23, 2023 at

ROME (Reuters) - The European Union's pact with Tunisia can serve as a model for other countries, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday, as the EU struggles to stem unauthorised flows of migrants across the Mediterranean.

The EU and Tunisia last week signed a "strategic partnership" deal that includes cracking down on human traffickers and tightening borders.

Europe also pledged 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in aid to help Tunisia with its battered economy and rescue state finances.

"We want our agreement with Tunisia to be a template. A blueprint for the future. For partnerships with other countries in the region," von der Leyen told a conference in Rome.

She said the EU should offer a legal pathway to take in migrants rather than them risking their lives in perilous sea crossings.

New strategic partnerships would incorporate economic development, trade and investment, with mutual advantages in areas such as climate and renewable energy.

"This Mediterranean region has vast natural resources like sun, wind and immense landscapes in abundance. You have the potential and the ambition to be global energy powerhouses in a net-zero world," she said, citing Europe's hydrogen partnerships with Egypt and Morocco. ($1 = 0.8990 euros)

(Reporting by Angelo Amante; Writing by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Keith Weir)





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