It’s official: the Tunisian SAR (sea search and rescue area) was born. And so in this area of the Mediterranean, in front of the coasts of the Maghreb country (and beyond its territorial waters), the Tunisian coast guard patrols (which depends on the National Guard) to save any shipwrecked people (in these parts they are essentially desperate migrants, Tunisians and sub-Saharans). This is what already happens in part, but with the SAR it will become easier and more codified, the area where you can intervene is much wideree Tunis will receive additional means e funding from the EU to operate at sea. In short, this is yet another victory for Giorgia Meloni for the objective of blocking the way for migrants, who they try to reach Lampedusa from the coasts of North Africa.
“Bringing migrants back to Tunisia”
On the other hand, it was she who, last June 4, during the council of ministers, reported on the activity of the joint Italian-Tunisian working group, which assisted the authorities in Tunis to establish the SAR zone of the African country (Italian experts would have done the bulk of the procedure required to create it, according to the standards established by the Hamburg Convention of 1979). “The common perspective”, explained Meloni, “is to formalize the existence of a maritime area, which provides the intervention of Tunisian ships to carry out rescue work and bring the migrants back to the nearest safe port, i.e. Tunisia”. The country established its SAR zone today, in the Sicily channel, with a communication sent to the International Maritime Organization, where it indicated the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) of Tunis as the contact person.
The controversies with NGOs
It remains to be seen whether Tunisia will respect the limits set unilaterally by Malta for its SAR zone in the east or whether it will define new ones (it currently arrives right next to Tunisian territorial waters). The same will have to be verified for the borders with the Italian SAR and the Libyan SAR. The “sea search and rescue area” of Tripoli is in the crosshairs of controversy, especially from NGOsbecause Libyan vehicles intercept migrants’ boats and take them back to a country that does not appear to be absolutely safe (there is a frequent practice in Libya of locking migrants in collection centres, where they are tortured and their families of origin are asked for money to free them ).
“Safe country for migrants”
There are now also very strong reservations regarding Tunisia as a “safe country for migrants”. Since the president Kais Saiedin February 2023, gave a racist speech about sub-Saharan migrants in transit towards Europe, for them the situation has degenerated and since last summer the National Guard has regularly collected groups of these migrants to forcibly transport them to the desert areas on the borders with Libya and Algeria.
Life has become hell
Life for sub-Saharans in Tunisia has become hell. More than twenty thousand are parked in a slum (NGOs cannot access it to provide assistance) in El Amra, about forty km north of Sfax. It is fed precisely by those who are intercepted at sea. It is a sort of hotspot (Meloni’s old project), where people live in inhumane conditions.
Meloni’s new victory (on the skin of migrants)
The Tunisian SAR, however, is a new victory for the Italian prime minister, who has already managed to obtain from the Tunisians a thorough control action at sea, to stop migrants on the road to Lampedusa. Only in this way has the number of those arriving on the Italian coasts since the beginning of the year from Tunisia and Libya fallen to less than 23 thousand migrants, compared to almost 60 thousand in the same period last year. A few weeks ago the Minister of the Interior Kamel Feki (since torpedoed) he told a group of Tunisian parliamentarians, in a closed-door hearing, that European borders were strictly monitored in response to the request of certain European leaders to “turn off the tap” before the European electionsaccording to the newspaper’s revelations Acharaa El Magharibiconfirmed by the deputy Yassine Mami.
Said, Meloni’s friend, is waiting for the collection of 900 million euros
Saied, Meloni’s friend, did his duty. But last week he surprisingly did not show up at the G7 in Puglia, although he had been officially invited by his friend Giorgia. It could be a signal sent to you and the EU to release as soon as possible the 900 million euros foreseen by the Tunisia-EU memorandumstill frozen, because they are tied to the 1.9 billion dollar IMF loan, promised some time ago, but these are also blocked, because Saied does not want to implement the reforms imposed by the international organization. The Tunisians, in any case, seem to have the upper hand.
