Amnesty International said that Tunisian authorities must urgently address the lack of human rights in the country "which has significantly worsened since president Kaïs Saïed's power grab on 25 July, 2021."

"All new measures and laws that do not respect international human rights standards should be repealed," the rights watchdog states in its recent report titled "Tunisia. One year of human rights regression from the moment of the president's power grab".

The report delves into detail on how Saïed dismantled and weakened the fundamental human rights safeguards since his power grab last July, despite his statements of commitment for authorities to safeguard human rights.

Opposition figures targeted

The report describes how Tunisian authorities, while not implementing full-scale repression, are targeting high profile opposition figures and presumed enemies of the president.

"The first anniversary of the power grab by president Saied is a milestone in the progressive deterioration of human rights safeguards. With a ruling by decree without any supervision, the president has undermined key progress that had been reached for human rights over the course of the last ten years following the 2011 revolution. A revolution that put an end to the rule of former president Ben Ali" stated Heba Morayef, Amnesty International regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

"The actions of Tunisian authorities continue to cast a series of doubts and worry for the future of human rights in Tunisia. President Saied and others have intensified the violations of these rights targeting the judiciary in particular. Although they do not implement full-scale repressive measures they have targeted key critics and political opposition representatives through judicial investigations, legal proceedings and in some cases arrests, revealing, beyond any doubt the president's position on any dissent," adds Amnesty in its report.

Attemps to reach the Italian coastline continue

In the meantime the attempts to leave Tunisia to reach Europe continue. The Tunisian coast guard on the night between July 19 and 20 said it had prevented and stopped several "crossings of the maritime border," according to the spokesperson for the national coast guard in Tunis on Facebook. The coast guard added that during the operations at sea "142 people were rescued (85 of different African nationalities, the rest were Tunisian)."

Tunisian authorities recently dismantled an international trafficking network between Algeria and Tunisia that allegedly trafficked people toward Italy. A total of 39 people were reportedly arrested, some of them of Algerian nationality who were used to illegally crossing the border of the two countries.