Tunisia arrests 38 migrants after clashes with coastguards

4 months ago 31

Thirty-eight sub-Saharan African migrants were arrested in Tunisia on Wednesday (17 July) after clashes with coastguards who intercepted their boat during an attempt to migrate to Europe, Tunisian media reported.

The migrants were said to have attacked a coastguard during an attempt to prevent them from setting off from the coast of the central city of Sfax, Tunisia’s main departure point for Italy.

“When they were surrounded, the migrants threw stones at the coastguards and seized a small boat aboard which they found a security agent whose hands they later tied,” Hichem Ben Ayyad, spokesman for the Sfax governorate court, told the media.

The migrants “also pushed another security agent into the sea after injuring him in the chest with a sharp object,” he said, adding that “his condition is stable”.

Tunisia and neighbouring Libya are major departure points for migrants attempting perilous sea crossings to Europe.

According to the Tunisian interior ministry, around 23,000 irregular migrants are currently present in the country.

There was a spike in irregular crossing attempts by sub-Saharan African migrants following a 2023 speech by President Kais Saied alleging that “hordes of illegal migrants” posed a demographic threat to Tunisia.

Tunisia and the European Union last summer reached a “strategic partnership” through which Tunis received financial aid worth 105 million euros ($112 million) in return for efforts to deter migrant departures.