Money only if human rights are respected: Europe reviews the agreement on migrants with Tunisia wanted by Italy

Money only if human rights are respected: Europe reviews the agreement on migrants with Tunisia wanted by Italy

The European Commission is apparently evaluating how to provide funding to Tunisia as part of the memorandum signed in 2023 between Brussels and Tunis for the management of borders and migrants. The change of pace came after an investigation by Guardian, which highlighted the presence of countless abuses by the Tunisian national guard, funded by the European Union, including widespread sexual violence against migrants.

The conditions for providing financing

A plan is therefore being studied in Brussels to develop “concrete” conditions to fully implement the memorandum of understanding, according to the British newspaper. European payments to Tunis, worth tens of millions of euros over the next three years, can only be made if human rights are not violated. Not only that. A series of subcommittees will be formed in Brussels over the next three months to ensure that human rights are at the heart of its relations with Tunisia until 2027, the expected deadline of the agreement.

Italy itself, led by Giorgia Meloni, together with the then Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, and the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had explicitly asked for a pact between the two coasts of the Mediterranean, with the aim of curbing the departures of migrants from the North African country suddenly exploded at the beginning of the year.

EU money to detain migrants: the new agreement between Europe and Tunisia wanted by Italy

In the partnership, made up of five key chapters largely linked to the stability of the country and the support of its economic development, one chapter is dedicated to the management of migration, with the aim of combating the trafficking network. This is an agreement that provides funding equal to 150 million euros in budget support plus 105 million for border management. The agreement between Tunis and Brussels includes provisions relating to the fight against irregular migration, as well as EU financial support for the provision of equipment, training and technical support for Tunisian border management, to fight against smuggling operations and for the strengthening of border control.

Tunisia is an increasingly “authoritarian” country

European officials, who have always rejected accusations of having a controversial relationship with Tunis to reduce the arrival of migrants in the old continent, appear to be backing down because they are aware that the North African state will be increasingly “authoritarian” in the coming years. Tunisia has become even more repressive since Kais Saied secured a second term last October, prompting a crackdown on activists fighting for migrants’ rights as well as some media and newspapers.

Those who support this reading are precisely the detractors of this agreement, who consider the European Union’s change of pace as an admission of the fact that the controversial Tunisia-EU agreement of 2023 has favored the reduction of migratory flows to the detriment of the protection of human rights .