The World Briefly
July 18, 2023Deterrents and Bribes
Tunisia
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Tunisia and the European Union signed a “strategic partnership” deal this week to boost the country’s economy and tackle the migration crisis affecting the bloc, amid a sharp increase in boats leaving the North African nation for Europe, the Middle East Eye reported.
The agreement will see the EU provide more than $1 billion in aid to shore up Tunisia’s finances, which have been battered by soaring inflation and a scarcity of essential goods.
It is intended to promote trade, investment, a transition to green energy, and macroeconomic stability.
The EU will also allocate more than $110 million to combat illegal migration, for example with initiatives to disrupt the business model of human traffickers, and strengthen border controls.
The deal comes as both parties have experienced a migration crisis in recent months that has seen thousands of undocumented African migrants flocking to Tunisia with the goal of reaching Europe in smugglers’ boats.
Official data showed that more than 75,000 migrants had reached Italian shores by boat up to mid-July this year, compared with 31,920 over the same period last year. More than 50 percent of them departed from Tunisia.
Some of these journeys have ended in tragedy, including a boat last week that sank on its way to Italy. The Tunisian coastguard reported recovering the bodies of 13 sub-Saharan African migrants as it rescued 25 others.
Tunisian officials, meanwhile, said that more than 600 people have died or are missing due to boat sinkings off the country’s coast.
The EU–Tunisia deal comes as the nation is in the midst of a political crisis ongoing since July 2021, when President Kais Saied suspended parliament and dissolved the government.
Saied has since ruled by decree, a move his opponents have labeled as a “constitutional coup.”
Despite plans to tackle migration, Tunisia said it will not act as a “reception center” for the return of sub-Saharan migrants, and will only take back migrants who are Tunisians, the Guardian noted.
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