Bessem Ben Dhaou –
SFAX (Tunisia). Tunisia has announced that during the first quarter of this year its competent authorities have rescued 27,665 irregular migrants and hindered 889 migrations to Italy.
This was announced via Facebook by the spokesman of the Tunisian National Guard, Hossam Eddine Jababili, who declared that “The units of the maritime regions of the National Guard of the centre, coast, north and south have succeeded, in the period between 1 January and on 31 March, to counter 501 irregular migration operations towards Italy”.
He then added that “Naval National Guard units managed to rescue 14,406 immigrants in these areas, of which 13,138 came from sub-Saharan African countries, while the rest are Tunisians”, and that “During the same period they countered a Sfax (south) and Mahdia (east) 388 irregular migration operations, and rescue 13,259 people, of which 12,804 from sub-Saharan African countries and 455 Tunisians”.
Furthermore, according to the same source, “63 people involved in the trafficking of irregular migrants were arrested, and 135 sea vessels and 12 vehicles used for land transport were seized”.
In recent times, Tunisia has emerged as one of the most important immigration gateways to European countries, prompting the authorities to ask for external support to deal with this phenomenon.
Two days ago the police forces dispersed a garrison of sub-Saharan migrants who had been demonstrating in front of the UNHCR headquarters in Tunis for about a month.
The migrants asked to be taken to Europe as they did not consider Tunisia a safe place.
