Aid Workers Face Charges As Europe Funds Tunisia's Border Brutality
Tunisian authorities are prosecuting NGO workers for allegedly 'aiding irregular migration,' a move Amnesty International rightly calls the 'criminalisation of civil society.' This trial comes after a 2023 EU-Tunisia Memorandum of Understanding, where the European Union pledged €105 million to Tunisia for 'border management' efforts. That's a fancy way of saying: help us keep migrants out, no
matter the cost to human dignity. So, while European taxpayers unknowingly fund detention and deportation, those offering basic humanitarian assistance become criminals? An unadvertised bonus of the EU's 'stability' package, perhaps. The EU's cash incentivizes Tunisia's increasingly authoritarian government, under President Kais Saied, to violate human rights with impunity, driving thousands of
Black African migrants into deserts or arbitrary detention, as NGOs like Human Rights Watch have documented. So, yes, let's blame the people offering water, not the system that creates the thirst and profits from the suffering. One might wonder who the real 'irregular' actors are in this sad charade.