Trial opens in Tunisia of NGO workers accused of aiding migrants

Tunis: Aid workers accused of assisting irregular migration to Tunisia went on trial on Monday, as Amnesty International criticised what it called “the relentless criminalisation of civil society” in the country.

Six staff members of the Tunisian branch of the France Terre d’Asile aid group, along with 17 municipal workers from the eastern city of Sousse, face charges of sheltering migrants and facilitating their “illegal entry and residence”.

If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison.

Migration is a sensitive issue in Tunisia, a key transit point for tens of thousands of people seeking to reach Europe each year.

A former head of Terre d’Asile Tunisie, Sherifa Riahi, is among the accused and has been detained for more than 19 months, according to her lawyer Abdellah Ben Meftah.

He told AFP that the accused had carried out their work as part of a project approved by the state and in “direct coordination” with the government.

Amnesty denounced what it described as a “bogus criminal trial” and called on Tunisian authorities to drop the charges.

“They are being prosecuted simply for their legitimate work providing vital assistance and protection to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in precarious situations,” Sara Hashash, Amnesty’s deputy MENA chief, said in the statement.

The defendants were arrested in May 2024 along with about a dozen humanitarian workers, including anti-racism pioneer Saadia Mosbah, whose trial is set to start later this month.

In February 2023, President Kais Saied said “hordes of illegal migrants”, many from sub-Saharan Africa, posed a demographic threat to the Arab-majority country.

His speech triggered a series of racially motivated attacks as thousands of sub-Saharan African migrants in Tunisia were pushed out of their homes and jobs.

Thousands were repatriated or attempted to cross the Mediterranean, while others were expelled to the desert borders with Algeria and Libya, where at least a hundred died that summer.

This came as the European Union boosted efforts to curb arrivals on its southern shores, including a 255-million-euro ($290-million) deal with Tunis.