To stop migrants we pay authoritarian, racist, violent governments:what is happening in President Saied's Tunisia

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As has often happened in recent years, the Cutro shipwreck overnight turned the spotlight back on the massacres in the Mediterranean, but not on the authoritarian and repressive contexts of the countries of transit or departure.According to the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, the solution would be simple:“They shouldn't have left,” they said, without taking into consideration that the sea journey is only the latest in a long series of risks that migrants take, most of them before embarking.Minister Piantedosi's statements to the press confirm the tendency of Italian politics to re-propose a formula that has already demonstrated its limits, and which is based on the allocation of more funds to the countries of departure in exchange for a tougher border control policy .Demonstrating why this recipe doesn't work is one of the main starting countries, into which Italy has injected more funds:Tunisia.

In recent weeks, the policies of externalization of European borders to the South of the Mediterranean have led to a paradoxical situation in the North African country, where the security forces apparatus under the control of President Kais Saied, architect of Tunisia's authoritarian turn, has was strengthened after the 2011 revolution and continues to be so also thanks to the substantial contribution of Italy, which however did not serve to avoid the worst economic-financial crisis that the Tunisian state has experienced since independence.While negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a new tranche of aid are stalling and inflation continues to increase, Tunisian politics seems to have appropriated the argument preferred by the Western right in the event of a social crisis:the “fight against irregular immigration”.It's hard to believe, but anti-migrant propaganda is managing to gain a hold on a population, the Tunisian one, which is itself migrant, but which is currently experiencing a violent impoverishment that doesn't seem to want to stop.

Since the end of 2022, riding the general discontent also caused by a series of shortages of basic food products in Tunisia, the Tunisian Nationalist Party, a minor party recognized by the state in 2018, has strengthened itself and started campaigning against people black women present in the country.In Tunisia, parties have been cut off from political life with the institutional coup d'état of July 25, 2021 (when Kais Saied barred the doors of parliament), only to then be completely excluded from the recent legislative elections, where in theory only independent candidates were allowed.Yet, the Nationalist Party has been given ample media space in recent months.On social networks, pages supporting the openly xenophobic positions promoted by this niche party have multiplied, especially on Facebook and TikTok, where videos of alleged crimes committed by sub-Saharans, often fake, have started to be shared hundreds of times.

Until the end of February, however, the threats promoted by xenophobic groups who called for "the expulsion of the sub-Saharans who colonize Tunisia" remained unimplemented, despite taking place in a context of widespread racism historically present within Maghrebi societies.The approval in Tunisia of a historic law against racial discrimination in 2018 was not enough to eradicate the problem.On Tuesday 21 February, however, it was none other than the President of the Republic, Kais Saied, who resumed those openly racist statements towards the sub-Saharan community in Tunisia.Following a security tip, he appeared on the presidency's Facebook page a statement which points the finger at the "hordes of sub-Saharans arriving in the country" who would "demographically" threaten Tunisia and its "Arab-Muslim identity".The Presidency's statements echo the theory of Grand Replacement, a conspiracy theory according to which there is an ongoing replacement of "whites" by migrant populations.An idea which, in Europe, has fueled racist propaganda against Tunisians themselves.

Among its supporters is the French politician Eric Zemmour, former presidential candidate in France who, a few hours after the release of Kais Saied's statement, even reshared it on his Twitter page, supporting his iron fist towards the sub-Saharan community.The French politician is not the only one to have openly supported Kais Saied's latest directives.Even Antonio Tajani, our foreign minister, he reiterated several times the "maximum support to Tunisia in border control activities" precisely in the days in which sub-Saharans began to suffer real roundups by the police, attacks and violence in the streets of the main Tunisian cities, in the workplace and in their apartments, which they were often forced to leave and ended up in the middle of the street.Right in front of the headquarters of the International Organization for Migration, the IOM, in the rich neighborhood of Lac 1, a tent city has been formed for some time and is getting bigger in recent days, where those who have requested the so-called voluntary return have been waiting for months your turn, without assistance.Other men, women and children have settled in front of their embassy in these days of tension.Some of them ask to be able to leave Tunisia to return to their country, but despite the directives published in recent days by some embassies such as those of the Ivory Coast and Mali, no one is yet clear how to get out of the thicket of Tunisian bureaucracy to obtain valid documents, an exit visa and board a return flight.

Meanwhile, following the publication of the Presidency's statement, a violent campaign against sub-Saharans has taken hold in the country.While on the one hand, the police have already arrested hundreds of people, now in prison waiting to understand their fate, there have also been episodes of daily racist attacks, so much so that the associations representing the sub-Saharan communities in Tunisia they explicitly requested to their fellow citizens not to go out, waiting to understand how the situation will evolve.Some universities have also made it known that during these weeks sub-Saharan students, who number in the thousands in Tunisia, might not have attended lectures.Many families found themselves on the streets after panic broke out among the owners of accommodation rented to sub-Saharans who risked a sanction from the authorities.In reality, the partially true news is based on one old law from 2004 which, with tones similar to Bossi-Fini, regulates immigration in Tunisia by punishing the crime of aiding and abetting, backfiring against those who assist in any way those who do not have a regular residence permit.

Despite the obvious risks run by anyone who contests the positions of the Tunisian Presidency in the days in which Kais Saied ordered the arrest of a good part of his political opponents, civil society and some volunteers are nevertheless taking action to help those left on the streets or he no longer dares leave the house, not even to go shopping.A solidarity demonstration was organized on February 25 by the Antifascist Front, a group of Tunisian left-wing activists who tried to reorganize themselves to respond to the hate campaign at a local level.However, it was the African Union that made itself heard at an international level, which in a statement contested the openly racist positions of the representatives of Tunisian institutions.France said it was "concerned".Shortly afterwards, however, commenting on the Cutro shipwreck, the Minister of the Interior, Gérarld Darmanin, shook Piantedosi's hand, supporting the position of the Italian government which, without commenting on the Tunisian events, reiterates that it wants to "contain migratory flows", stopping departures, without however asking questions about the situation in Tunisia. 

As documents Action Aid's 'The Big Wall' project, from 2011 to today Italy has spent 47 million euros, 15 in the last two years alone, in an attempt to strengthen the Tunisian coast guard.Yet, little has been done to rethink the shortcomings of the reception system in the North African country, where the asylum law remained a project and was never approved.In Tunisia, in fact, holders of refugee or asylum seeker status must still go through the long and complex process to obtain a residence permit, given that the document issued by the UNHCR is not considered an administratively valid identity document. to be able to get organized, study or work.In any case, whether it is an asylum seeker, a refugee or simply a foreigner who has entered Tunisia regularly, the body of legislation relating to foreigners makes it difficult to regularize the position of those who work in the country, because in order to obtain a residence permit for reasons of work, for example, a contract approved by the Ministry of Labor is required.

Furthermore, Tunisian law grants it only if the job in question requires skills that no Tunisian citizen can offer.Although several people manage to prove their skills by presenting degrees, diplomas and all the necessary documentation, the issuing of the definitive residence permit (the provisional one expires after three months) encounters countless delays, leaving the migrant person in a hybrid situation between regular and irregular , and thus exposing her to police checks.Regularizing one's situation is therefore very difficult even for those who would like to stay in the country, also because many of the sub-Saharans present in Tunisia do not have a valid passport and many employers remain in the belief that sub-Saharans do not have the right to work.Thus they remain informally, working illegally, often exploited for a handful of dinars by Tunisian companies, or as domestic servants, assistant cooks, gardeners for wealthy families.

Many of them, for example Ivorian citizens, do not even need a visa to enter the North African country, and arrive in Tunisia regularly via the airport, only to stay longer than the three months allowed by the visa and are no longer able to pay the fine that would allow them to leave Tunisia.If many of the sub-Saharans find themselves in an irregular situation and often work in the country in an attempt to save the money necessary for the trip to Lampedusa, for others Tunisia is a country of study or work where they reside permanently, and where they often remain blocked due to administrative procedures.The recent hate campaign makes no distinction:all black people in Tunisia are victims, including black Tunisians, who launched a campaign on social networks explaining that they had to start leaving home with their passport to prove to passers-by and the police that they were actually Tunisian citizens.Representing them is the Mnemty association, led by the historic black Tunisian activist Sadiya Mosbah, who recalls:“Tunisia has never come to terms with its history and its identity as an African country.There is no trace of the legacy of the black Tunisian community in our history books.It's like we live in Sweden."

Preview image:photo by Arianna Poletti

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