European Union/Tunisia: Agreement on migration ‘makes EU complicit’ in abuses against asylum seekers, refugees and migrants

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Responding to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding under which, among other things, the EU has agreed to give Tunisia financial and technical support to deter Europe-bound migration, Amnesty International’s Advocacy Director at the organization’s European Institutions Office, Eve Geddie said:

“This ill-judged agreement, signed despite mounting evidence of serious human rights abuses by authorities, will result in a dangerous expansion of already failed migration policies and signals EU acceptance of increasingly repressive behaviour by Tunisia’s president and government.

“Coming against a backdrop of escalating violence and abuses against sub-Saharan African migrants by Tunisian authorities, the decision shows no lessons have been learned from previous similar agreements. This makes the European Union complicit in the suffering that will inevitably result.

“At the same time as Tunisia and the EU were preparing to sign this agreement, Tunisian authorities left hundreds of people including children stranded at Tunisia’s desert borders, initially without water, food or shelter.

“By focusing their policies and funding on containment and on outsourcing of border control rather than ensuring safe and legal routes for those trying to cross borders safely, EU leaders are once again embarking on failed policies that are based on callous disregard for basic human rights standards.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Amnesty International.