The illegal and violent practices of the Tunisian National Guard in the Central Mediterranean
Migrants boats on Beliana beach. Photo: ananymous
Based on testimonies gathered by various actors of Tunisian and transnational civil society, this report documents the interception practices of the Tunisian National Guard in the Central Mediterranean. The data collected, based on 14 in-depth interviews conducted between 2021 and 2023 with exiled people who survived attacks at sea, highlight violent and illegal practices, ranging from non-assistance to maneuvers intentionally aimed at capsizing boats in distress, causing shipwrecks and costing the lives of many exiled people.
This brutalization by the Tunisian border authorities, which has now been documented for several years, is taking place against a backdrop of increasing border outsourcing policies by the European Union and its member states. Faced with an increase in traffic on the Tunisian maritime route from 2021 onwards, and in the hope of limiting the number of crossings, the EU has considerably increased its support for Tunisian security forces, setting up a “refoulement by proxy” regime, following the example of its cooperation with Libyan militias.
The fruit of a collective effort involving Alarm Phone and numerous actors from Tunisian civil society, for security reasons in the current context of criminalization and repeated attacks on people and organizations in solidarity with migrants in Tunisia, has been deemed preferable not to mention the latter.
In the face of repression, the publication of this report thus sounds like a promise – the promise that, whatever the attempts at intimidation, solidarity will continue to express itself unabated.
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