TUNIS – “We cannot act as border guards for other countries”. On the eve of the visit of Giorgia Meloni e Ursula von der Leyen the Tunisian president Kais Saied he replies both to the criticisms and to the appeals that come to him from Europe. And in a surprise move he travels to Sfax, the city where sub-Saharan migrants are concentrated hoping to leave for Europe, a place where those same migrants are allegedly victims of serious human rights violations.
“Tunisia will never accept the slightest inhumane treatment inflicted on anyone on its soil and works to ensure that all immigrants are in a regular situation – says Saied – These people are victims of a global system that treats them not as human beings , but as mere numbers and it is not acceptable that we act as border guards for other countries” continues Saied.
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The Tunisian head of state then rejected the accusations of racism: “We are all Africans. These migrants are our brothers and we respect them, but the situation in Tunisia is not normal and we must try to stop it. The solution must be collective and humanitarian, within the framework of law”.
Saied also disputes the data on the number of migrants present on Tunisian territory: “There is talk of 10,000, but in reality they are much more numerous, and they go above all to Sfax. Those who defend human rights accept that people are in this misery, they sleep on the ground and outside with the children in the sun, cold and rain?”, he asks during a visit to the makeshift camp of migrants on the outskirts of Bab Jebli.
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Then he says that Tunisia can teach lessons of humanity. “We talk about trafficking in human beings and they are victims of poverty, civil wars and take refuge in Tunisia, but we are a state that has its own laws and respects the law and human beings. The solution must be within the framework of law. Why are we asking to respect the law in the northern Mediterranean and not in the south? The solution must not be to the detriment of Tunisia, of those we protect, but (migrants ed) must respect the law and be within the law”, he concludes.