How EU funds support abuse and violence against migrants in Tunisia:the brutal truth behind the “Italy model” on immigration

Abuse.Violence.Rape and sexual assault.For a year and a half, the list of abuses and violations affecting the Tunisian security apparatus has become longer and longer.In particular since February 2023 when the President of the Republic Kais Saied delivered a harsh state speech against the sub-Saharan community present in the country accusing it of carrying out a real ethnic substitution of the Tunisian population.Since then, the xenophobic and racist violence has become increasingly visible and has directly affected the security forces of the small North African state.

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

An investigation by the British newspaper The Guardian has documented what this segment of the population has been forced to endure for some time.It is also undergoing it through tools, equipment and training made available by the European Union and with a brutality that demonstrates the complete opposite of the values ​​on human and international rights cited by Brussels when it commits to financing this type of program.

“It was clear that they were going to rape me.”A few words are enough to understand all the pain and terror that lies behind the actions of the security forces.The speaker is Marie, her name is fictitious and she is originally from the Ivory Coast.The girl managed to save herself thanks to the intervention of a group of Sudanese.However, according to some organizations operating locally, there are hundreds of cases of women who have been raped by policemen or security agents.«There are many of us who have been raped in large numbers.They are taking everything away from us", continues Marie.

The epicenter of all this is Sfax, Tunisia's second city and one of the main starting points along the central Mediterranean route.In particular it is the countryside of El Amra, an expanse of olive trees and houses scattered north of the urban centre.This is where all the evil that the security forces have committed against the sub-Saharan and migrant community present in Tunisia is condensed.In fact, since President Saied made that harsh speech, the local authorities have become protagonists of evictions towards El Amra where informal camps have begun to form.Today it is very complicated to estimate how many people live in a situation that has been defined as "horrible" by many.There are between 25 and 100 thousand people camped among the olive trees of Sfax, without access to medical care, drinking water and food.

It is within this context that European Union funding plays a leading role.The Brussels institutions have never stopped supporting the Kais Saied regime and the bodies of the Ministry of the Interior that operate in the migration field, the police and the Garde nationale. Blue suitcase was able to reconstruct the economic value of these programs.As of October 2023, Brussels had 144 million euros in assets dedicated to the security and strengthening of the Tunisian borders, to which must be added 105 million euros linked to Memorandum of Understanding signed in Tunis on 16 July 2023 intended for the migratory phenomenon.

These are numbers which in practical terms translate into supplies, donations of land and naval vehicles, control systems and training courses for security agents to operate in the area while respecting human rights.The investigation of The Guardian revealed that all this is not true, on the contrary.The increase in cases of violence coming from Tunisia has coincided with an ever-increasing commitment on the part of the European Union to support the small North African state in combating irregular immigration.Although there has been a formal commitment from Brussels to verify with a field mission the accusations made against the Tunisian security forces, in the eyes of Europe the price to be paid to see departures from the southern shore of the Mediterranean reduced today seems necessary.

Within a national context where cases of daily violence and rape against vulnerable subjects seem to indicate that respect for human rights and the dignity of the person are not elements to be taken into consideration, there are two other aspects to point out.Since July 2023, cases of mass expulsions of sub-Saharan migrants towards the borders with Algeria and Libya have become increasingly frequent.A phenomenon that has been documented by international investigations Desert Dumps, coordinated by Lighthouse Report. IrpiMedia he edited the Italian part and the stories that emerge directly link the suffering of the people to the European funding that has touched the Tunisian authorities over the years.

«They told us:“Over there is Algeria, follow the light”.“If they see you here, they will shoot you.”We started walking.At a certain point we found ourselves faced with warning shots from the Algerian side."François is also a fictitious name and his personal story dramatically resembles those of thousands of other people effectively trapped in Tunisia.Between September and December 2023 he tried to reach Italy four times without success.On the third crossing attempt, he was first intercepted at sea by the Garde nationale and subsequently arrested and expelled at the border with Algeria:«Things got worse and worse.I was trying to think:what will I do with the child, with my wife, how will I return to Tunisia?", is François's story.

In security operations of this type the investigation Desert Dumps documented the use of cars, boats and engines that were donated by the European Union and individual member states, including Italy.These operations began a few days before the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding at the presidential palace in Tunis in the presence of the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Melone and the former Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte.

Tunisia, with the Meloni - von der Leyen Memorandum on migrants we continue to look at the symptoms and not the causes

"We have had many cases of women raped in the desert", are the words of a local organization operating in Sfax, quoted by The Guardian, which estimates that 9 out of 10 women arrested near the Tunisian city have suffered sexual violence.Despite the numerous documented cases of violations, only recently has the European Union seemed to want to address concerns that have long hovered over Tunisia.Questioned on the topic a few weeks before the investigation The Guardian, a spokeswoman for the European Commission responded to Blue suitcase that «the EU monitors its programs through different tools, including regular partner reports, external evaluations, verification missions and monitoring.The EU-funded capacity building of the Tunisian authorities, including equipment and training, is provided exclusively for the purposes defined in the EU-funded programmes, in full compliance with international law."

The second aspect to underline in the dramatic scenario concerning Sfax and the migration policies on the Brussels-Tunis axis are the interceptions at sea.At the end of April this year, the Garde nationale, the security body of the Ministry of the Interior responsible for dealing with the Tunisian maritime borders, announced that it had "intercepted or rescued" more than 21 thousand people in an increasingly growing trend:there were 14 thousand in total in 2020;20 thousand in 2021;33 thousand in 2022 and 96 thousand in 2023.The increase in the intervention capacity of the Tunisian authorities was made possible thanks to the ever-increasing commitment of the European Union and individual member states in providing and accompanying people's training.

The other side of the coin is that this type of interception operation has caused the death of migrant people, particularly sub-Saharans.The NGO Alarm Phone, a project that provides support to people in difficulty crossing the Mediterranean, published Interrupted sea, a collection of 14 testimonies which from 2021 to 2023 tell both the shipwrecks caused by the Garde nationale and the type of illegal operations carried out at sea by the Tunisian authorities, in particular in the stretch from Sfax north to the city of Mahdia and extends to the Kerkennah Islands:voluntary ramming, theft of engines, dangerous encirclement that causes high waves and the instability of the precarious iron boats used for the crossing, throwing of tear gas, beatings with sticks and steel clubs.The key to interpreting and knowing the most violent face of the Garde nationale, also immortalized by numerous videos that circulate on social networks.

Blue suitcase in particular, it was able to reconstruct the case of a shipwreck caused by Tunisian security forces which dates back to 6 April.It all starts from a satellite image – processed by Placemarks, a project that analyzes satellite images to highlight the environmental, social and territorial changes underway on the African continent - taken on the morning of April 6th of the port of Sfax which shows around 100 people lying or sitting along the quay, in front of some boats of the National Guard.They are monitored on sight by the local authorities.Among those people are Ousman, Kominata and Ibrahim.They are all fictitious names and their locations also cannot be revealed for security reasons.However, thanks to their testimonies it was possible to define the responsibilities of the Garde nationale in a shipwreck that caused the death of at least 15 people who now have a name and a precise identity thanks also to the effort of various associations that mobilized immediately :Refugees in Libya, Mem.Med-Mediterranean Memories and J&L Project.

“Throughout the night people remained lying without clothes, food or water.”The first words are from Ousman, originally from Gambia, who spoke in real time to Blue suitcase what happened that morning, from the arrival in Sfax until the expulsion near Nalut, Libya.Before interrupting communications because "they came to get us", Ousman said that on the evening of April 5, four groups left at different times from the coast of Sfax for a total of almost 200 people.According to first-hand testimonies, the first three were intercepted by the Garde nationale, while the last "was shipwrecked and I know that there were 13 deaths".A data partially confirmed by the same authorities who a few days later issued a statement on Facebook praising the activities at sea that weekend in early April:«As part of the fight against the phenomenon of irregular migration, over the weekend the floating units of the Garde nationale managed to foil 85 illegal sea border crossings, to rescue and save 2,688 people (2,640 sub-Saharan Africans and 48 Tunisians) and to recover 13 bodies ».

«I have never seen a boat hit another intentionally.I had heard many stories about it but this is the first time I can witness it with my own eyes.That night I lost my sister, my nephews and my brother's wife."This time it is Ibrahim who speaks.Originally from Sierra Leone, he did not know Ousman but they most likely saw each other at the port of Sfax that night.He was on board the last group of 42 people who left on the evening of April 5 and is one of the eyewitnesses to the massacre.His story, together with that of other survivors, is central to retracing what happened that night.

The sun had just set when 21 men, 13 women and eight minors aboard an iron boat less than eight meters long left the coast of El Amra.After a few moments, several tear gases fall to the sides or enter the vehicle.It is the Tunisian police forces who are trying to prevent the migrants from leaving from the coast.Brief moments of panic that now seem to be behind us when the coast becomes smaller and smaller as the minutes pass.After another stretch of navigation the situation worsens.Two black dinghies of the Tunisian National Guard can hold 42 people and carry out a few laps around the boat, generating a strong wave motion.

The small boat begins to destabilize, there are those who beg the coastguards to be let go, those who stand up showing the minors present in the boat to pray that they will not be violently attacked.The requests prove useless.One of the black dinghies begins to ram the stern of the boat, the man on board hits people with an iron club and tries to steal the engines, a very common practice in interception operations.An action that is repeated at least five times and causes the small boat to break.Within a few minutes the boat fills with water and sinks.In an instant they all find themselves in the open sea.Most of them can't swim.

The two rubber dinghies of the Garde nationale are now tens of meters away.The crew, two people for each boat, decides to throw some ropes and then record what happens with their phones.The scenario is tragic:those who manage to reach the tops cling on and climb onto the dinghies, which in any case are too small to accommodate 42 people;those who can't swim drown.Subsequently, other boats from the Tunisian authorities reach the black dinghies to provide assistance to the shipwrecked people:two more white dinghies arrive, two medium-length boats and two 35-meter ships, donated by Italy in 2014.In the end the death toll that Blue suitcase was able to verify it is 15 people, even if Ibrahim's version is different:«In reality only 18 of us survived, including a seven-year-old boy who I helped get onto the dinghy.When we arrived in the port I asked the coastguards if we could take photos of the bodies to send them to our families and inform them of their deaths.They just said 'no'."

Relatives, friends, mothers, husbands and wives.It is in the testimonies that the pain of those who in these shipwrecks lose a fundamental part of their existence in the space of a few minutes is hidden.Kominata is five months pregnant, also originally from Sierra Leone.Even today he can't understand what happened:«I was at sea for almost an hour before anyone helped me.When I managed to grab onto the rope no one pulled to save me.Meanwhile people were drowning.I never found my husband and most of the children died.Now I'm alone and pregnant."

In the operations that caused the shipwreck on April 5, two black inflatable boats supplied by Germany may have been used, as well as several boats equipped with radars from European programs and two 35-metre boats donated by Italy in 2014 and restored to efficiency in the following years. from the Vittoria Naval Shipyard in the port of Adria, within the program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Support to Tunisia's border control and management of migration flows.This is a 34 million euro fund which also includes the future supply of seven eleven meter patrol boats and which demonstrates how much of a priority Tunisia is for Italy today, at least in the field of migration.“If you're not saving people, at least don't destroy their lives,” is Ibrahim's bitter conclusion.

*The search for satellite images was made possible thanks to the support of Journalismfund Europe

Preview image:Iron boats used by sub-Saharan migrants for the crossing piled up in the port of La Louza, October 2023 – photo by Giovanni Culmone