EU allocates €93.5 million to Tunisia in six years

The European Union allocated a whooping sum of €93.5 million to Tunisia between 2015 and 2021 to combat irregular migration, displacement, and instability.

This was contained in a July 19, 2023, Human Right Watch report titled Tunisia: No Safe Haven for Black African Migrants, Refugees.

The report said: “Between 2015 and 2021, the EU allocated €93.5 million to Tunisia from its “Emergency Trust Fund for Africa” (EUTF), which sought to combat irregular migration, displacement, and instability. This included €37.6 million for “border management” and efforts against “migrant smuggling and human trafficking.” A February 2022 EU document said the counter-smuggling/trafficking funding “provides for equipment and training for officers of the Internal Security Forces, as well as the Tunisian Customs.”

The same document said the EU would “designate” up to €85 million for migration-related projects in Tunisia in 2021-2022. It did not specify what had already been spent, though a February 2021 EU document stated, “A very significant EU-funded support programme, benefiting the Tunisian Coast Guard, is currently being implemented.” As much as €55 million of the €85 million could have been allocated to supporting migration control in Tunisia, based on the breakdown in the 2022 document: border management (€25m, including support to the coast guard); migration “governance” and protection (€6-10m); legal migration and labor mobility (€20-25m); combatting migrant smuggling/trafficking (€12-20m); and returns (€5m).

The 2022 document also details extensive bilateral support to Tunisia by Italy, Spain, France, Germany and other EU states. In addition to its “fund for migration cooperation (ca. €10 million),” Italy supplied equipment (vehicles, boats, and more) “for a total value of €138 million since 2011,” and “technical assistance related to border control (2017-2018) … for a total of €12 million,” which included support to the Tunisian police and national guard. Germany also provided boats and vehicles, while Spain supplied IT equipment.

The EU’s 2021-2027 “Multi-Country Migration Programme for the Southern Neighbourhood,” which encompasses Tunisia, incorporates some positive elements – support to development of asylum policies, legal migration pathways, civil society engagement – but still highlights support to “law enforcement action” and “border and coast guard authorities” for border control. Problematic project indicators conflate sea interceptions and rescues (“number of migrants intercepted/rescued through SAR operations at sea” and “on land”).

European politicians have repeatedly proposed various migration partnerships with Tunisia, including offshore processing centers, “safe third country” deals, and agreements that could allow returns of third-country nationals who transited Tunisia.

International law admits the possibility of safe third country designations, which enable receiving countries to transfer asylum seekers on the presumption that the country they travelled through, or some other country, can fairly examine their refugee claims and provide effective protection. UNHCR guidelines list conditions for such transfers, including respect for refugee and human rights law standards and “protection against threats to physical safety or freedom.” The EU Asylum Procedures Directive requires non-EU member states to meet specific criteria to be designated “safe,” including “no risk of serious harm.”

Given the documented abuses by security forces and xenophobic attacks against migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Tunisia, in addition to Tunisia’s lack of a national asylum law, it appears that Tunisia does not meet EU law criteria for a safe third country. Black Africans in particular should not be forcibly returned or transferred to Tunisia.

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