The relationship between Tunisia and Italy on the migration issue is once again becoming tense. More than 4,000 Tunisians reached the Italian coast during the month of July, well above the previous peak of 2,700 arrivals in October 2017. Alarmed, Rome sent its Interior Minister, Luciana Lamorgese, to Tunis on 27 July. On 30 July, the Tunisian ambassador in Rome was summoned. The next day, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio raised the pressure a notch by issuing threats. Without an appropriate Tunisian response, he warned that Italian aid could be suspended, citing an initial package of 6.5 million euros.
Such an outbreak of Italian-Tunisian fever on the migration dossier is not unprecedented. In June 2018, the Italian ambassador in Tunis was summoned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs following derogatory remarks by Matteo Salvini, then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, denouncing the “sending” by Tunisia of “judicial reprisals” to Italy.
In the face of renewed tension, Kais Saïed, the Tunisian head of state, tried to calm down. He went to Sfax (center) and Mahdia, two main departure points 140 km from the island of Lampedusa, on Sunday 2 August. On the program: a review of the coastguards, a visit to three squadrons offered by Italy. Surrounded by uniforms, the Tunisian president sought to reassure neighboring countries by staging a state watching over its borders.
Eliminating the reasons for departures
He also sent a message of a different kind. In a modest office of the Maritime National Guard, he spoke of the “collective” responsibility of both sides of the Mediterranean, blaming migration – among other reasons – for “the unequal distribution of wealth in the world”. “Instead of investing more in the coastal forces to eradicate this scourge, he said, the original motives that drive these candidates to throw themselves into the sea must be eliminated. He added that Tunisia bears its share of responsibility. “The issue is essentially Tunisian-Tunisian” because the country has “failed to solve the economic problems,” he said. There are many projects but they are, in his view, hampered by “political and administrative blockages”.
Such burdens have not been helped by the political crisis in which Tunisia has been plunged for weeks. The government of Elyes Fakhfakh had to resign at the end of July barely five months after taking office. The Islamoconservative Ennahda party, dominant in the ruling coalition, took advantage of accusations of a “conflict of interest” against Mr. Fakhfakh to push him out. Its Interior Minister, Hichem Mechichi, has been chosen by the Head of State to form the next government.
In these circumstances, the suspicion that the Tunisian authorities might have knowingly turned a blind eye to the new wave of departures is hardly taken seriously by some observers. “This is absolutely not the case,” says Romdhane Ben Amor, the communications officer of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), one of the most dynamic organizations in Tunisian civil society. Last July, there were nearly 250 interceptions by the Maritime Guard,” says Mr. Ben Amor. That’s a record too. The security forces are exhausted. »
The more people smugglers and migrants depart, the less risk there is of being intercepted,” he adds. It’s a logic, not a coordinated strategy. “Since the recent acquisition of three speedboats and radars by the Tunisian authorities, the smugglers have adapted. Small boats made of Plexiglas and wood have replaced the usual ten-meter trawler-type boats with about 100 people on board, which are easily detectable.
Source: Le Monde
