What is the reality of deporting migrants from Tunisia to the Libyan border?

14 August، 2023

News platforms displayed several videos of irregular migrants at the Tunisian-Libyan border trying to enter the Libyan territory. The most important platform was ABAAD. It has about 159,000 fans on its Facebook page, where it published the allegation in more than one post, including a video:

AbAAD (a witness): “The Tunisian army establishing the migrants on the Libyan border”.. Photos of the attempted infiltration of migrants on feet on the Tunisian-Libyan borders.

The published video received more than 5,000 comments, and more than 240,000 views since the date of the report.

Verifivation:

The widespread videos were reviewed and all the details of the issue were taken into consideration. There were “ethnic cleansing” operations against migrants in the Tunisian city of Sfax as described by some. Those operations were in response to the killing of a Tunisian citizen by migrants in the city.

This led to the development of the situation into street war, hate speech and discrimination against all those who were different in terms of color

In the absence of an effective role of the Tunisian government in deterring insecurity actions and protecting migrants from riots and encroachment.

Libya had its share of hate speech and accusations of being the reason for the incursion of migrants in Tunisia. Some social media users expressed their dissatisfaction in a violent manner towards Libya and accused it of being the cause of this crisis.

Video clips of the Tunisian authorities evacuating migrants from the city of Sfax and transporting them to the Libyan-Tunisian border in the desert without shelter or any means of life in light of the force majeure and high temperatures have spread, which has prompted international organizations and some activists in Libya to issue statements and warnings about the danger of the presence of migrants on the country’s borders and the danger of their infiltration.

The National Human Rights Committee expressed its dissatisfaction with the Tunisian state blaming it on Libya and endangering Libyan-Tunisian diplomatic relations with such acts.

The FB official page of the Libyan Foreign Ministry published details of the communication between the Libyan Foreign Affairs Minister Najla Al-Mankoush with her Tunisian counterpart, where no radical solutions to the problem of migrants was discussed.

It was also the case with the Libyan Minister of Interior and his Tunisian counterpart. According to the circular of the Tunisian Ministry of Interior, the phone call between the two ministers was only to discuss ways of cooperation in facilitating the movement of the Ras Jedir border crossing. They have also agreed on the need to intensify efforts in countering irregular migration across the border without actually developing a real radical solution to the current crisis.

However, after international pressure and calls from international organizations, the Tunisian authorities finally transferred the migrants from the Libyan border to designated shelters. According to Said Ben Zayed (Governor of Medenine), the transfer was done in cooperation with the Red Crescent which provided health care to the migrants. As mentioned in the statements of the Red Crescent, the transfer included about 600 migrants.

Several days after the Tunisian authorities announced the evacuation of migrants to shelters, the Libyan authorities, represented by the Ministry of Interior and the border Guards, evacuated more than 80 migrants (men, women and children) who were in a critical health situation on the Libyan border in cooperation with IOM. They were sheltered in the border district of Al-Assah.

This was condemned by many prominent people and human rights organizations, most notably the National Human Rights Committee, which in its recent statement considered this act as complicity with the Tunisian authorities in the crime of collective expulsion against migrants in Tunisia. It was also considered as a burden for Libya to withstand the problems of neighboring countries especially after the announcement the Libyan MoI made of an intensive border security plan.

Reference is made to the statement of the President Kais Said last February regarding migrants. He stated that he would not allow them to change the demographic composition of the Tunisian State and that it is necessary to stop the flow of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.

In the same context, no agreement was announced between Libya and Tunisia on this subject. Meanwhile, there was an announcement of an agreement between Libya and Italy that was widely shared on social media platforms.

Note*:

The1951 Refugee Convention guarantees the full rights to all refugees and stipulates that the host governments have the responsibility of protecting refugees in their territories.

Besides that, there is the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families adopted by the General Assembly resolution on 18 December 1990.