Proposed Tunisian law may legalise forced deportation
Tunisian lawmakers are currently reviewing a new law that would allow the deportation of “irregular” migrants to their home countries. According to The New Arab on January 27th, this comes amid an increase in anti-migrant sentiment and xenophobia in the country.
Prior to this in 2024, the Tunisian government claimed they achieved great success in the “voluntary” repatriation of over 7,000 migrants. However, human rights groups have expressed their concerns that this draft law may be in violation of several international migration agreements, of which Tunisia are part of.
The bill outlines a new legal system for deportations, this includes exemptions for migrants who are at risk of torture or inhumane treatment in their home countries, with the option for migrants to appeal deportation orders in administrative courts.
The Tunisian Observatory for Human Rights has slammed this proposal as unethical and contradictory, arguing that the government are using the bill as a backdoor to legitimise its current practice of forced deportations.
At the end of 2024,The Tunisian government figures estimated around 20,000 “irregular” migrants were living in Sfax Al-Amra.
Migration into Tunisia fell by 64% last year, and land border crossings dropped by 84%.Critics suggest that Tunisia may already be undertaking forced deportations, under the guise of European cooperation.
The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights argues that many migrants experience harsh living conditions, leaving them with little option but to “voluntarily” return to their home country.
“This law is just populism dressed up as policy,” said a forum spokesperson.
Since 2023, reports have circulated of migrants enduring prison-like conditions in Tunisian reception centres, these reports allege migrants are coerced into signing deportation papers under emotional and physical abuse amounting to torture techniques.
This crackdown came after President Kais Saied’s 2023 speech, in which he claimed the arrival of “hordes of clandestine migrants” from sub-Saharan Africa is a ploy to “change the demographic composition” of the country.
Saied’s racist rhetoric, evokes a grand replacement theory, fuelling widespread violence against Black migrants and has caused widespread eviction of migrants, as well as causing them to lose their jobs. Even those against such xenophobic rhetoric fear investigation for offering assistance to migrants.
Investigations by both local and international human rights organisations have uncovered a multitude of reports of abuse, including the rape of hundreds of migrants by Tunisia’s national guard, the beating of men, women, and children, and complicity with human traffickers.
In response to this harsh climate, many migrants have taken refuge on the outskirts of Sfax, where they live in scattered camps plagued by diseases. In these camps migrants are experiencing malnutrition due to lack of food, as well as a lack of medical care.
These migrants cannot even attend the hospital as they fear they will be arrested, often migrants in the camp with some medical training act as unofficial doctors
Despite the mounting evidence of human rights abuses, the EU has defended their partnership with Tunisia, arguing Tunisia has one of the most advanced systems for monitoring human rights in the region.
Regardless of this, the EU acknowledged in January 2025, that there is a need for clearer safeguards, and are currently drafting “concrete” conditions to force Tunisia to meet human rights standards.
The New Arab
