Amnesty International (AI) has released a scathing report, “No One Hears You When You Scream,” denouncing a “dangerous shift in migration policy” in Tunisia, citing systematic abuses, violence, and racism against migrants and refugees.
The human rights organization also voiced deep concern over the European Union’s financial support for Tunisian border control without adequate oversight.
Based on over a hundred testimonies, AI’s lengthy investigation focused on the treatment of migrants, including interceptions at sea and their subsequent deportations to the desolate Libyan and Algerian borders in the middle of the desert.
Amnesty International asserts that over the past three years, Tunisian authorities have adopted immigration and asylum policies demonstrating a “total disregard for the lives, safety, and dignity of refugees and migrants,” often using these policies as tools of racial exclusion.
Safia Ryan, Amnesty International’s North Africa researcher, explained that behind the violations, there is always an underlying incitement to racial hatred and a “discriminatory basis based on skin color.”
The report highlights that state officials are carrying out collective expulsions, violating the principle of non-pushback and risking migrants’ lives. These operations frequently follow targeted arrests based on racial criteria or dangerous interceptions at sea, and are often accompanied by acts of torture and other ill-treatment, including dehumanizing sexual violence.
Furthermore, the NGO lamented that access to the asylum process has been effectively suspended, and organizations offering protection to refugees and migrants have faced severe repression.
Amnesty International squarely points to the responsibility of the European Union, which funds Tunisia’s migration control efforts without effective oversight.
Ryan criticized the EU for intensifying support for sea interceptions and migration controls “without ensuring that this support does not go to the very authorities responsible for these violations.” She concluded that there is a serious flaw in the current system of support for the Tunisian authorities, enabling the continuation of the denounced abuses.
AK/ac/Sf/fss/abj/APA