Tunisia, situated at the crossroads of Africa and Europe, has become a critical transit zone for irregular migrants seeking passage to Europe. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that, as of July 2024, around 18,323 registered refugees and asylum seekers reside in Tunisia, primarily from the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Horn of Africa (UNHCR, 2024). Unlike Algeria and Morocco, Tunisia has maintained a relatively welcoming approach to migrants, particularly after the 2011 Arab Spring, which positioned Tunisia as a more favourable destination than its neighbours.
The reasons for this are threefold. First, the EUbacked agreement between Italy and Libya aimed at stemming migrant flows, signed in 2017, resulted in the creation of detention centres on Libyan territory, as well as the transformation of some non-state armed groups into ‘coast guard’ units (Martini and Megerisi, 2023, p. 13). The civil war in Libya in 2019 pushed migrants in those detention centres, or otherwise transiting through Libya, into Tunisia in search of safer havens and routes (pp. 14–15).[1]
Second, since 2017, the Algerian government has instituted a policy of pushing back migrants from its borders, forcing them back into the desert regions of Niger and Mali (Dockery, 2018). In contrast, Morocco has cooperated with Spain under the terms of a 1992 bilateral agreement, allowing for the readmission of irregular migrants to Moroccan territory (Carrera et al., 2016; Smith, 2022). For example, in 2022, incidents at the border fence separating Morocco from Spain’s North African exclave of Melilla saw Moroccan security forces respond to an attempted mass crossing by firing tear gas and using batons (Smith, 2022).
Third, though most sub-Saharan migrants live in precarious conditions in Tunisia, the country offered better conditions for migrants than other North African states, despite their irregular status—even after some legalization efforts. The combination of Algeria’s pushback policy, Morocco’s closed borders, and the unrest in Libya meant that Tunisia saw the number of irregular migrants increase given the country’s relative calm. This was counterbalanced, in part, by Tunisia’s limited ability to absorb and help these new migrants due to constrained resources.
The situation for migrants is not easy. A system of restrictive laws in Tunisia makes it difficult for sub-Saharan migrants to regularize their status and obtain residence permits for legal employment. Furthermore, the Ministry of Interior is opaque in its handling of immigrant detention and expulsion, making it difficult to monitor their actions (Roman and Pastore, 2018, pp. 12–13). Even Libyan citizens with financial means residing in Tunisia since the conflicts of 2011 and 2013–14 are not acknowledged as migrants or asylum seekers. Consequently, they lack any formal legal status and do not meet the criteria for UNHCR refugee status (p. 11).
[1] Interview with Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesman for the Forum Tunisien pour les Droits Économiques et Sociaux (FTDES), Tunis, Tunisia, July 2023.
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