Associations representing Tunisian civil society have spoken out against the insistence on connecting the two sets of negotiations proposed by the European Commission, one on a visa facilitation agreement and the other on the obligation upon Tunisia to readmit illegal migrants reaching Europe via its soil.
These negotiations between the EU and Tunis were officially launched on Wednesday 12 October in the Tunisian capital (see EUROPE 11644).
"As it stands, the draft readmission agreement submitted by the European side seriously breaches the freedom of movement, even though this is guaranteed by many international texts, in particular the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948", reads a joint press release by the 20 signatory associations. These include two 2015 Nobel Peace Prize winners (the Tunisian General Labour Union, known by its French acronym UGTT, and the Tunisian Human Rights League, known by its French acronym LTDH), and the Euro-Mediterranean Network for Human Rights (EuroMed Rights).
"We categorically reject all of the provisions regarding the readmission of third-country nationals and stateless persons, as they are tantamount to subcontracting part of the responsibility for controlling Europe's borders to Tunisia, as it is also trying to do with other countries of its neighbourhood", these associations write. They point out that in addition to this, Tunisia "is currently unable to offer any serious guarantee that the human rights of non-Tunisians on its territory will be respected, as there are no laws on the hosting, regularisation or voluntary return of these individuals to their countries of origin, or even an effective asylum system".
On the draft agreement to facilitate the issuance of visas, the organisations argue that this "contains no notable progress in visa access for Tunisians, other than the highly qualified profiles that already have it". They call for short-stay visas to be abolished for Tunisian and European nationals. (Original version in French by Fathi B'Chir)