Tunisia FM says won’t apologise to migrants
Tunis, Tunisia (AFP):
Tunisia’s top diplomat sought to “reassure” sub-Saharan African migrants on Monday, in an interview with AFP days after comments by President Kais Saied drew accusations of racism.
Last week, Saied called for “urgent measures” against “hordes” of sub-Saharan migrants, whom he accused, without evidence, of causing a wave of crime and representing a plot to change the country’s demographic make-up.
Rights groups have since reported a spike in vigilante violence including stabbings of black Africans, while migrants say they have been thrown out of their dwellings en masse and handed over to “mob justice”.
The African Union voiced its “deep shock and concern” at his comments, urging member states to “refrain from racialised hate speech that could bring people to harm”.
In an interview with AFP on Monday, Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar said Saied’s comments had been tendentiously interpreted.
“Several days have now passed and now we need to keep a cool head. It’s time to reassure (Africans). Messages of reassurance have already been transmitted through official channels,” he said.
“There’s no question of apologising, we didn’t attack anyone.”
According to figures from the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), drawn from official sources and confirmed by Ammar, the North African country of 12 million inhabitants hosts around 21,000 sub-Saharan African migrants who lack full documentation.
Bureaucratic obstacles
That figure, around 0.18 percent of the population, includes foreign students at the country’s universities who often complain they are unable to obtain the paperwork they need because of bureaucratic obstacles.
Ammar insisted that “there’s no problem with legal migrants. In fact, we’d like to see more. (However), illegal migrants should return home, with full respect for their rights and dignity.”
He also rejected any link between Saied’s comments and recent violence against migrants.
“We shouldn’t confuse individual acts with the acts of the authorities. The authorities are taking every measure to protect all migrants in Tunisia, whether legal or illegal,” he said.
Ammar, who took office three weeks ago, said Tunisian authorities were “within their rights to raise the alarm when there is an increasing flow of illegal immigrants, with all the consequences that this entails”.