From January 1st to June 1st, 2023, more than 50,000 people landed in Italy. And Tunisia is in first place among the countries of departure of vessels (25,937), even surpassing Libya (22,462). From the coasts of North Africa, the flow of migrants does not stop, confirming the need for intervention in the two countries from which the boats that reach our coasts depart. Tunisia, in particular, continues to represent a migratory bomb due to the serious economic crisis it has been experiencing for some time. Therefore, during the week the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, will pay an official visit to Tunis after the telephone conversation with President Kais Saied, which took place on Friday night.
Among the topics already discussed and that will also be discussed at the meeting scheduled for the next few days, is the focus on migrants and the negotiations between Tunisia and the International Monetary Fund for the maxi-loan of 1.9 billion dollars to be disbursed country to avoid economic collapse. But the road to agreement is still difficult. Saied made it known that, given the reforms proposed by the IMF as a guarantee of disbursement of money, he is not willing to give in to external dictates and relaunches his proposal to restore the country’s finances: “tax on wealth” and “supplementary fees” to who “benefits from tax compensations”. So, taxing the rich to get the money needed for public finances without having to resort to borrowing from the International Monetary Fund.
According to data released by the Tunisian Minister of Finance, Sihem Boughdiri Namsia, at the end of 2022 Tunisia’s external debt amounted to around 115 billion dinars (about 34.5 billion euros), equivalent to 79.9 per percent of the gross domestic product. Of this amount, 46.6 percent would be constituted by external loans, while 33 percent by internal debt. Whether Saied’s project will have a chance of success remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Italy is working to ensure that at least the first loan tranche is disbursed to Tunisia pending reforms. On the immigration front, however, Saied would like to organize a high-level conference between countries affected by the migration issue, including in particular the countries of North Africa, those of the Sahel and Sahara and the countries of the North of the Mediterranean, with the aim of addressing the causes of irregular migration and identifying the most appropriate ways to end the resulting humanitarian crisis.
An initiative that, however, would not immediately stop the flow of migrants who continue to leave. They are mostly sub-Saharan (in addition to Egyptians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis) among the most declared nationalities at the time of disembarkation, who arrive in Libya and Tunisia with the aim of crossing the Mediterranean thanks to people smugglers and entering Europe illegally. According to data from Viminale, from January 1 to June 1, 7,380 people landed on our coasts who declared themselves to be from Côte d’Ivoire, 5,996 from Guinea, 5,478 from Egypt, 4,632 from Pakistan, 4,628 from Bangladesh and 3,431 from Tunisia . And precisely on the presence of migrants in the country, for some time now in Tunisia there have been episodes of intolerance and violence against those arriving from sub-Saharan Africa.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
