Tunisia doesn't want to be Europe's border guard to slow migration

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia’s president said Monday that his country doesn’t want to be Europe's border guard or a land of resettlement for migrants rejected elsewhere.

President Kais Saied made the comment after meeting in Tunis with the French and German interior ministers amid an effort by European governments to work with Tunisia to prevent more deadly migration efforts across the Mediterranean.

Tunisia has become one of the main stepping-off points for migrants hoping to cross from Africa into Europe, and European officials are offering Tunisia ever-growing amounts of aid to try to slow the flow. Most of those fleeing war or misery are from sub-Saharan Africa but many are from Tunisia, which is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a generation.

The visit by the French and German interior ministers, who oversee migration policy for the biggest powers in the European Union, was the third high-level European visit to Tunisia in two weeks. It came came after an overcrowded trawler capsized last week off Greece, leaving at least 80 people dead and hundreds missing as they sought to reach Italy from Libya.

Saied said after the session that security crackdowns aren’t enough to prevent deadly migration. He said Tunisia would not be Europe's border guard and would “not accept becoming a country of resettlement” for migrants deported from Europe. He has bristled at suggestions that migrants refused permission to stay in Europe be sent to the last country they transited through instead of their home countries.

Blaming human smuggling networks, Saied urged more aid for development and fighting poverty. “Let us work together to dismantle them and eliminate the reasons that led to this situation,” he said.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced 25 million euros in aid to buy Tunisia border policing equipment and train border guards. That comes on top of some 1 billion euros in various aid offers from the European Commission earlier this month, and new aid from Italy.

Despite concerns about threats to human rights in Tunisia under Saied’s increasingly autocratic rule, Darmanin praised Tunisian authorities efforts to prevent migration. “We are at Tunisia’s side,” he said.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said ahead of their joint trip: “We want to create legal migration routes in order to remove the basis for the inhumane business of smugglers. We want the human rights of refugees to be protected and the terrible deaths on the Mediterranean to stop.”

Tunisian authorities say they intercept thousands of people every month trying to leave in boats off the coastal city of Sfax. Over the weekend, 11 boats were intercepted carrying some 260 people, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa but also some Tunisians, said a National Guard spokesperson, Houssameddine Jbabli.

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Associated Press journalists Mehdi El-Arem in Tunis and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration