UN Accuses Tunisia of Abandoning Black Refugees

Facts

• On Tuesday, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination accused Tunisian authorities of expelling Black refugees and migrants to its borders with Libya and Algeria, despite signing a deal to curb migration to Europe.¹
• Videos provided by NGOs and Libyan border agencies allegedly show hundreds of refugees and migrants being forced by Tunisian security services to walk, at gunpoint, into the desert without food or water.²
• Tunisia is a party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination as well as the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, which both ban collective expulsions.³
• The North African nation is also part of the UN and African Refugee Conventions, the Convention Against Torture, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which forbid the forced return or expulsion of people to countries in which they could face threats to their lives or freedom.³
• In February, Tunisian Pres. Kais Saied accused "hordes" of migrants from sub-Saharan African countries of a "plot" to change the country's demographic landscape. He made the comments during a meeting of the National Security Council.⁴
• Since gaining power in 2019, Saied has allegedly limited freedom of the press and judicial independence, while Tunisian forces have reportedly indulged in arbitrary detentions and inhumane treatment of migrants.⁵

Sources: ¹Bloomberg, ²Al Jazeera, ³Human Rights Watch, ⁴Amnesty International, and ⁵CNN.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Human Rights Watch. Tunisia is blatantly committing horrific human rights violations against Black migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. EU member states must withhold their support for migration and border management under the recently signed MoU with Tunisia until a thorough human rights impact assessment is carried out.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Guardian. Tunisia should not be a reception ground for returning migrants. The country is facing economic issues and cannot support the hordes of migrants traveling to the nation. The EU needs to solve its migration problems instead of offloading them onto Tunisia, and illegal migrants must return to their countries of origin.

Predictions