During a visit to Tunis on Monday, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced that France would provide Tunisia with 25.8 million euros to aid in its efforts to stop boats carrying migrants across the Mediterranean.
This funding will help Tunisia combat a sharp increase in migrant departures and is in addition to a 105 million euro European Union package that the president of the EU commission announced earlier this month.
A terrible number of drownings have resulted from perilous sea journeys, frequently on crowded, flimsy boats. This year, there has also been a sharp increase in the number of migrants arriving in Italy, which has caused political unrest throughout Europe.
The sinking of a boat carrying hundreds of migrants from Libya to Greece last week brought attention to the perilous nature of the journey.
The president of Tunisia, Kais Saied, has stated that his nation will not serve as a border guard for Europe, but in February he also announced a crackdown on sub-Saharan African migrants already residing there.
The African Union claimed the language used to announce the crackdown was racially insensitive, and it appeared to have increased the number of migrants leaving Tunisia.
“Tunisia’s role is not to be a coastguard, but we are working to minimize departures,” said Darmanin.
He claimed to have also given the Tunisian government a list of individuals he wished to return from France to Tunisia. He said Tunisia had requested France to be more accommodating with regard to visa requirements for its citizens.
Due to Tunisia’s struggling economy and impending public finance crisis, the number of migrants from that nation is also rising.
Additionally, the EU has offered Tunisia around 1 billion euros in financial assistance in exchange for its acceptance of an IMF program that calls for cutting subsidies and restructuring state-owned businesses.
Source-France24
