Prompted by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s visit to Lampedusa, in view of the emerging migrant crisis, the Tunisian government responded by moving hundreds of migrants away from the Sfax harbour – the main point of migrants’ departure from Tunisia to Italy and southern Europe. Closer to the Tunisian coastline than both Malta and Italy’s second nearest island of Sicily, Lampedusa has recently become an obvious destination for undocumented migrants trying to enter European Union territory. Yet moving migrants to other parts of Tunisia was apparently not intended to simply ease the pressure on European Union and Italian authorities alike. On the contrary, it was more likely intended as a demonstration of power signalling to all European leaders that Tunisia has the power to control the flow of migrants leaving its ports to reach European land. The European Union has promised to deliver “€100 million to Tunisia this year for border management, to combat people smuggling, and for search and rescue operations. The package of measures also includes a number of opportunities for further economic and other cooperation with Tunisia.” [1]
The package, however, was not ratified at the time when the Tunisian government decided to move the migrants around the country. With Tunisia in a position to command the flow of migrants to Europe and either increase or decrease the number leaving its ports, all the while Italy claims that more than 127,000 irregular migrants have reached its shores so far this year, a political crisis involving the two Mediterranean states and the European Union is likely to erupt. Perhaps it is the Tunisian government’s intention to highlight the fact that the line between preserving and disregarding the European Union’s interests is very fine, indeed. Exerting pressure on the Europeans in order to secure more favourable terms when negotiating an agreement with the European Union is eventually reached. Since Meloni has pledged her commitment to limit irregular migration, it is only natural that the Tunisian government maintains high expectations in terms of receiving financial support from the European Union.
Although the above is, of course, entirely hypothetical, it remains a fact that migrants in Tunisia are racially abused by the local security forces. Last July, some 800 migrants were transported and, eventually, abandoned with no food or water at the desert near the border separating Tunisia from Libya. Given that both Tunisia and Italy have almost no concern of the migrants’ future, it becomes evident that the latter will persist in trying to reach Europe no matter how perilous their journey will be.
Christos Kassimeris, PhD
Professor Christos Kassimeris heads the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at European University Cyprus and is coordinator of the BA in European Politics and Communication. Before joining European University Cyprus, he was teaching European Integration Politics and International Relations of the Mediterranean for three years at the University of Reading. He is the author of European Football in Black and White: Tackling Racism in Football (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007), Greece and the American Embrace: Greek Foreign Policy Towards Turkey, the US and the Western Alliance (I.B. Tauris Academic Studies, 2009) and Football Comes Home: Symbolic Identities in European Football (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2010), editor of Anti-racism in European Football: Fair Play for All (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009), The Marketing of War in the Age of Neo-Militarism (Routledge, 2011) and The Politics of Education: Challenging Multiculturalism (Routledge, 2011), and has several publications in political science journals. He is also Visiting Research Fellow at the University of De Montfort.
Sources / Recommended Readings
- Deutsche Welle, Migration as a weapon: Is Tunisia blackmailing the EU?, by Kersten Knipp, 20/09/2023
- CRiTERIA, Weaponizing Migration: The Case of Italy, by Christos Kassimeris
Banner image by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash.
