TunisThe Kaïs Saïed regime has gone a step further in its campaign to criminalize solidarity towards refugees and migrants, while collaborating more closely with the EU in controlling migration flows. Last week, the authorities arrested Abdallah Saïd, head of an NGO established in the south of Tunisia that is dedicated to helping migrants, and who, after an interrogation, was handed over to an Anti-Terrorism Court. His arrest is the latest in a wave of repression of activists and humanitarian associations specializing in the same work that began in May.
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“It’s a dangerous sign, because it’s the first time that the authorities have used an accusation of terrorism for entities specialized in the migration issue,” points out Romdhane Ben Amour, researcher at the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights. In addition to Saïd, founder of the NGO “Infants de la luna”, the general secretary of the entity, the treasurer, and two employees of the bank with which they collaborated are also under investigation. “The regime has in its sights all the NGOs that have received foreign funding and work on the migration issue,” says an aid worker who prefers to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
The starting shot of this witch hunt took place at a meeting of the National Security Council on May 6. President Saïd then used coarse words such as “traitors” or “mercenaries” to refer to the humanitarian associations, which he accused of “receiving astronomical sums […] to implant Africans in Tunisia.”
This speech fits with what he pronounced in February 2023, when he referred to the existence of “a criminal plan” to change the “demographic composition of Tunisia” and replace its Arab and Muslim population with “hordes” of black sub-Saharan migrants, an idea inspired by the “great replacement” theory of the European extreme right.
In the following days, the police arrested several managers of three NGOs known for their solidarity home work with migrants. Six, including the former president of the French NGO Terre d’Asile, Xerifa Riahi and Mnemty anti-racist activist Saadia Mosbah. In addition, dozens of other people were charged or questioned by the police, most of them for having worked or collaborated with these NGOs. They include municipal officials, a former mayor, NGO workers and even owners of hotels that housed refugees.
According to sources close to the process, which is in the investigation phase, they are accused of association with criminals to help foreigners enter the country illegally and money laundering. The penalties for this last charge are very serious and range from ten to twenty years in prison. Among his relatives, there is the conviction that these are completely fabricated accusations. At the moment, the premises of the three associations mentioned have been sealed and their bank accounts frozen, so their activity has ceased.
A speech that has taken root
Although the number of refugees and migrants in the Maghreb country is very small – around 80,000 people out of a total of 12 million inhabitants – the migration issue has entered the political agenda with force. Last summer, after a spike in racist comments online, authorities deported hundreds of sub-Saharan migrants and refugees to a border area with Libya. Trapped in no man’s land, at least twenty died of thirst. However, the State denied having carried out this type of practice until President Saïd himself spoke about it at the aforementioned National Security Council meeting.
“As a result of these measures, migrants have been isolated, deprived of the help of any institution. Those who did, are now terrified”, says Ben Amour. Tunisia does not have a public system for the recognition and reception of refugees, so this task was left in the hands of UNHCR. The UN agency often subcontracted the Tunisian Council for Refugees, one of the associations victimized by the crackdown. Now, the only option offered by international organizations, this one with the support of the regime, is “voluntary return” through the International Organization for Migration.
Last year, an informal network of activists was created to help illegal migrants. “We still continue with the work, but we have reduced our activities”, admits a member of the group. This repressive wave has had the complicit silence of the EU. “The policy of criminalization is in line with that of Georgia Meloni and the extreme right. The EU is already doing well”, says Ben Amour.
