Tunisia’s president claimed on Thursday that sub-Saharan migrants are part of a plot to change the country’s demographics. while refuting human rights group accusations of racism. However, human rights groups call the president’s views racist.
On Tuesday, President Kais Saied issued an order for the country’s security forces to put a halt to all unlawful immigration to Tunisia. While suggesting that all migrants must leave the nation without any documents, which received tremendous criticism.
Saied and Home Minister Tawfiq Charfeddin discussed how Saied’s opponents manipulated his statements to incite violence in an internet video. Human rights groups accused Saied of racism, calling his Tuesday speech fascist and threatening a protest.
Saied made the remark that legally residing Africans need to have a greater sense of ease. Adding that he would not allow anyone to hurt them.
The Union of Nigerian Students in Tunisia advised its members not to travel to certain districts of the capital city or leave the country without proper documentation.
Reuters spoke with a Mali and Côte d’Ivoire man living in Tunisia without paperwork but afraid to leave their houses.
Over the past year, more Tunisians and Africans have crossed the Mediterranean to reach Europe. Most Mediterranean migrants leave from Tunisia.
