"Tunisia cannot be considered a safe place for disembarkation under any circumstances": this is the conclusion of the report released last month by Civil MRCC, a network of different non-governmental actors and individuals with search and rescue (SAR) experience in the Mediterranean.

According to this document, over the last two years the number of people leaving Tunisia by boat to reach Italy has been increasing, as has the number of shipwrecks and disappearances close to the Tunisian coast of boats carrying people headed for Italy.

According to figures from the FTDES (Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights), between the beginning of 2022 and the end of November 2022, more than 575 people died on this crossing.

To this figure, one must also add the "invisible" shipwrecks, those countless boats which disappear without leaving any traces.

Tunisian route has changed

In recent years, the population sailing the Tunisian route has changed, with a clear increase in West and Central African people taking this route since 2020, Civil MRCC points out.

Long considered a country of origin, Tunisia is indeed also a country of destination for many migrants, but also increasingly a transit country, the report notes.

Especially since 2018 and the strengthening of cooperation between the EU and the Libyan Coast Guard, Tunisia has become a country of transit both for a migrant population fleeing Libya, as well as for a population arriving in Tunisia directly from their country of origin, Civil MRCC states.

While some migrants reportedly come to Tunisia with the ambition of attempting the sea crossing to Italy, ever more people leave Tunisia by boat after having lived there for several years, fleeing a deteriorating economic situation and various forms of insecurity.

This appears to be the case especially in the region of Sfax, where there exists a large migrant population from West and Central Africa.

Migration control in Tunisia: The role of Italy and the EU

Italy has a leading role and responsibility in supporting the migration control apparatus in Tunisia, Civil MRCC notes. Since 2017, the country has invested around €75 million for migration management projects.

Of those, nine projects reportedly concern support for border control through police training, the provision of equipment for data collection and management, technical support, equipment and maintenance of vessels for coastal patrolling and other tools for tracking and monitoring movements.

For these activities, Italy allocated 58 of the above-mentioned €75 million.

Civil MRCC says that in recent years, the European Union and Italy have focused an important part of their support to Tunisia in the field of maritime surveillance. The increased interception capacity of the Tunisian Coast Guard is directly proportional to Italian and European support, the organization claims.

According to information gathered by FTDES, there have been more than 29,000 interceptions at sea since the beginning of 2022. At the same time, the number of attacks on migrant boats dramatically increased, it says.

The Tunisian Coast Guard is directly trained, equipped and financed by the European Union.

In the recent Action Plan for the Central Mediterranean, published by the EU Commission last November, the Commission refers to Tunisia both in terms of reinforcing the country's capacities in monitoring and managing its maritime borders, but also strengthening the presence of UN agencies and a system of migrants and refugees reception in the country.

From 'safety' to increased border externalization

Despite all the evidence that Tunisia is not a safe country, the European Union tends to claim the opposite in order to justify the outsourcing of its migration policies, according to analysis.

The safe third country concept, already introduced in the 'Asylum Procedures Directive' is central to the European Union's border externalization strategies, Civil MRCC claims; its application allows the return of asylum seekers to a third country considered safe, without an actual assessment on the merit of their asylum claims.

By promoting this concept, Civil MRCC argues that the EU is seeking to gradually relocate the asylum claims of people on the move reaching the European coast to Tunisia.

"The Civil MRCC denounces this dangerous, illegal, and inhumane policy. While promoting freedom of movement for all, we will continue to document all the reasons why Tunisia cannot be considered a safe place for disembarkation under any circumstances," it added.