Amnesty International has warned of human rights deteriorating in Tunisia since President Kais Saied seized power there in July 2021. As the EU is counting on Tunisia to keep migrants at bay in the future, NGOs like Amnesty fear for their wellbeing.
In the second year since Tunisian President Kais Saied's power grab, Tunisian authorities have taken further steps towards repression by jailing dozens of political opponents and state critics.
That's according to a statement by rights organization Amnesty International published on Monday (July 24).
The authorities moreover violated the independence of the judiciary, dismantled institutional human rights safeguards and incited discrimination against migrants, Amnesty said.
'Hard-won freedoms stripped away'
"Decree by decree, blow by blow, President Saied and his government have dramatically undermined respect for human rights in Tunisia since his power grab in July 2021," Amnesty's Heba Morayef is quoted in the statement.
"In doing so, he has stripped away basic freedoms that Tunisians fought hard to earn and fostered a climate of repression and impunity."
Amnesty called on Tunisian authorities to "reverse this treacherous trajectory and uphold their international human rights obligations."
The NGO also noted it had documented the cases of at least 39 people who have been investigated or prosecuted merely for exercising their right to freedom of expression in Tunisia since July 25, 2021.
The charges against them include "insulting" the authorities or "spreading fake news," which are not recognized offenses under international law.
Racist statements sparked violence
In February 2023, President Saied made xenophobic and racist comments that triggered a wave of anti-Black violence, including assaults, summary evictions and arbitrary arrests of migrants from other African countries, Amnesty said in the statement.
Expulsions of sub-Saharan African migrants have been on the rise since.
According to Amnesty, Tunisian police also arrested at least 840 migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. "Some of them ended up in arbitrary detention in the Ouardia detention centre, a facility used solely for detaining people for migration-related offences," the NGO added.
"The authorities must take immediate steps to protect the rights of Black African foreign nationals, including migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. They must also stop arbitrarily detaining them or forcibly removing them from the country, especially without considering whether they will suffer from persecution upon being returned," Amnesty International concluded.