Italy lauds Tunisian efforts to stem migrant flow

Tunis, Tunisia (AFP):

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi on Monday commended Tunisia’s “significant effort” against irregular migration, during a visit to the North African country, his office said in a statement.

Parts of the Tunisian coast are within 150 kilometres (90 miles) of the Italian island of Lampedusa. Migrants from across Africa and Tunisia itself regularly use it as a springboard for attempts to reach Europe.

In a meeting with his Tunisian counterpart Kamel Feki, Piantedosi expressed his “full appreciation for the significant effort made by Tunisia to guard its maritime and land borders, to fight the networks of traffickers and confiscate their boats, to rescue migrants at sea”, according to the Italian interior ministry.

Piantedosi also met with Tunisian President Kais Saied, who argued migration “cannot be solved by an exclusively security approach”, the presidency said in a statement.

Saied sought a “remedy for the reasons” that lead to irregular migration and called for “as quickly as possible an international conference” to find solutions that could stop it, according to the statement.

The flow of migrants attempting the perilous Mediterranean crossing has intensified since Saied made a fiery speech on February 21 claiming illegal immigration was a demographic threat to Tunisia.

More than 200 people have drowned in a series of shipwrecks since the start of the year, according to the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), a migrant support group.

Dozens more remain missing off Tunisia’s coast after the sinking of multiple boats.

In early April, Rome’s interior ministry said more than 14,000 migrants had arrived in Italy since the beginning of the year — significantly more than the 5,300 who had arrived over the same period in 2022 and the 4,300 during 2021.

Heavily indebted Tunisia faces high inflation and unemployment, leading some of its citizens to seek a better life abroad.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and other European leaders fear an economic collapse in Tunisia will increase the flow of migrants to Europe’s shores.

Tunisia reached a deal in principle in October with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for nearly $2 billion to shore up its sinking economy, but discussions have stalled since then.