Stop the transfer of Italian patrol boats to Tunisia. The decision to suspend the passage until further indications was taken by the Council of State which accepted the precautionary request of a group of NGOs and associations and set the hearing in the Council Chamber for 11 July. For NGOs, the human rights violations committed by the Tunisian authorities are very serious. “As also supported by the United Nations, providing patrol boats to the Tunisian authorities means increasing the risk that migrant people are subjected to illegal deportations”, explains Maria Teresa Brocchetto, Luce Bonzano and Cristina Laura Cecchini of the pool of lawyers following the case.
The appeal to the TAR
TO reporting this are the same NGOs, Asgi, Arci, ActionAid, Mediterranea Saving Humans, Spazi Circolari and Le Carbet, who had appealed to the TAR of Lazio contesting the financing of 4.8 million euros for the return to efficiency and the transfer to Tunisia of six patrol boats. At the end of May, the TAR rejected the organizations’ appeal against the transfer of six patrol boats to the Tunisian National Guard. By virtue of this decision, the transfer of the first three patrol boats was scheduled for June. The associations therefore appealed the ruling of the Administrative Court to the Council of State, urgently requesting the precautionary suspension of the measure. And the request was accepted by the highest administrative judge.
The Council of State accepts the request
The appeal initially presented by the NGOs was rejected as the Lazio Regional Administrative Court had deemed the contested agreement legitimate. The judges, in reference to the Memorandum of 16 July 2023 between the EU and Tunisia, had in fact considered the agreement as in line with the decisions taken at both European and national community level. Furthermore, Tunisia was considered a safe country of origin. The acceptance by the Council of State of the precautionary request, however, reverses the situation: the highest administrative judge has in fact considered “the protection needs represented by the appellant party to be prevalent”, suspending the transfer of the patrol boats in light of the possible violations that this act can result.
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NGO: “Important decision, Tunisia is not a safe place”
“The new wave of arrests and deportations against migrant people is now accompanied by persecutions against the civil society actors who support them”, says Filippo Miraglia of Arci, “however Italian and European policies seem to support and justify each other, impervious to the alarms launched by the United Nations and international NGOs which unanimously condemn the actions of the Tunisian authorities”. This is echoed by Lorenzo Figoni of ActionAid Italia: “The mass deportations, arbitrary arrests and violence against migrant people demonstrate that Tunisia cannot be considered a safe place of disembarkation. As with Libya, the Tunisian authorities cannot therefore be considered an interlocutor in rescue activities”. Laura Marmorale, president of Mediterranea Saving Humans, is also on the same line: “This is an extremely important decision, since the human rights of people on the move are at stake. The suspension of the transfer of the patrol boats allows the judicial authority to evaluate the legitimacy of the ‘act before it can produce harmful effects. In light of the documentation filed, we consider Tunisia an unsafe port.”
