The Tunisian authorities have over the past three years increasingly dismantled protections for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, particularly Black peopel, with a dangerous shift towards racist policing and widespread human rights violations that endanger their lives, safety and dignity, Amnesty International said today. The European Union risks complicity by maintaining cooperation on migration control without effective human rights safeguards.
In a new report, ‘Nobody Hears You When You Scream’: Dangerous Shift in Tunisia’s Migration Policy, Amnesty International has documented how, fuelled by racist rhetoric from officials, tunisian authorities have carried out racially targeted arrests and detentions; reckless interceptions at sea; collective expulsions of tens of thousands of refugees and migrants to Algeria and libya; and subjected refugees and migrants to torture and other ill-treatment, including rape and other sexual violence, while cracking down on civil society providing critical assistance.
In June 2024, Tunisian authorities ordered an end to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) role in processing asylum claims, removing the only avenue for seeking asylum in the country. Yet EU cooperation with Tunisia on migration control has continued without effective human rights safeguards, risking EU complicity in serious violations and trapping more people where their lives and rights are at risk.
“The Tunisian authorities have presided over horrific human rights violations, stoking xenophobia, while dealing blow after blow to refugee protection.They must promptly reverse this devastating rollback by ending racist incitement and stopping collective expulsions that threaten lives.They must protect the right to asylum and ensure that they don’t expel anyone to places where they would be at risk of serious human rights violations. NGO staff and human rights defenders detained for assisting refugees and migrants must be released unconditionally,” said Heba MorayevRegional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
“The EU must urgently suspend any migration and border control assistance aimed at containing people in Tunisia and halt funding to security forces or other entities responsible for human rights violations against refugees and migrants. Instead of prioritizing containment and fuelling violations, EU cooperation with Tunisia must shift its focus to ensuring adequate protection measures and asylum procedures are available in the country, and incorporate clear, enforceable human rights benchmarks and conditions, to avoid complicity in violations.”
Amnesty International conducted research between February 2023 and June 2023 and interviewed 120 refugees and migrants from nearly 20 countries (92 men, 28 women, eight children aged 16–17) in Tunis, sfax, and Zarzis. The institution also reviewed UN, media, and civil society sources and the official pages of local tunisian authorities. Ahead of publication, Amnesty shared its findings with Tunisian, European, and Libyan authorities.No response had been received by the time of publication.
A crisis fuelled by racist rhetoric
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Testimonies reveal a migration and asylum system designed to exclude and punish rather than protect. At least 60 of those interviewed by Amnesty, including three childrentwo refugees and five asylum seekers, were arbitrarily arrested and detained. Black refugees and migrants were targeted amid systemic racial profiling and successive waves of racist violence from individuals and security forces, triggered by the public advocacy of racial hatred, starting with President kais Saied’s remarks in February 2023 and echoed by other officials and parliamentarians since.
The Tunisian authorities have presided over horrific human rights violations, stoking xenophobia, while dealing blow after blow to refugee protection. They must immediately reverse this devastating rollback by ending racist incitement and stopping collective expulsions that threaten lives.
Heba Morayef, Amnesty International
The situation was aggravated by a surge of repressive measures targeting at least six NGOs providing critical support to refugees and migrants. This has had horrific humanitarian consequences and led to an enormous gap in protection. Since May 2024authorities have arbitrarily detained at least eight NGO workers and two former local officials who cooperated with them. The next hearing in the trial of the staff of one of these organizations,the Tunisian Council for Refugeesis scheduled for 24 November.
‘We saw them drown’
Amnesty International investigated 24 interceptions at sea and spoke to 25 refugees and migrants who described life-threatening, reckless and violent behavior by the Tunisian coastguard, such as dangerous ramming; high-speed manoeuvres threatening to capsize boats; hitting people and boats with batons; firing tear gas at close range; and the denial of any individualised protection assessment at disembarkation.
“Céline”, a Cameroonian woman migrant intercepted after departing from the eastern region of Sfax in June 2023, told Amnesty International:
“They kept hitting our [wooden] boat with long batons with sharp endings, they pierced it… There were at least two women and three babies without life vests. We saw them drown and then we could not see the bodies anymore. I have never been so scared.”
Despite ongoing concerns about the lack of obvious reporting regarding interceptions, in 2024 the Tunisian authorities stopped publicly sharing data on these operations after establishing a maritime search and rescue region (SRR) supported by the EU. Prior to that, they had reported a meaningful increase in interceptions.
‘Go to Libya, they will kill you’
from June 2023 onwards, Tunisian authorities started to collectively expel tens of thousands of refugees and migrants, mostly Black people, either following racially motivated arrests or following interceptions at sea. Amnesty International found that between June 2023 and May 2025, authorities carried out at least 70 collective expulsions, involving more than 11,500 people.
Tunisian security forces have been routinely dumping migrants,asylum seekers and refugees,including pregnant women and children,in remote and desert areas at the country’s borders with Libya and Algeria.They abandoned them without food or water and usually after confiscating their phones, identification documents and money, placing them at great risk to their lives and safety. Following the first wave of expulsions in June-July 2023, at least 28 migrants were found dead along the Libyan-Tunisian border and 80 migrants were reported missing.
These expulsions have been carried out without any procedural safeguards and in violation of the principle of non-refoulement.