Saied calls for restoring security in Sfax (Tunisia), one of the main points of departure for migrants to Europe

2023-07-05 02:13:12

MADRID, 5 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The president of Tunisia, Kais Saied, has asked this Tuesday to restore security in Sfax, one of the main departure points for migrants to Europe, after the night before an alleged group of sub-Saharan Africans killed a Tunisian citizen in the city.

In a meeting with the Minister of the Interior, Kamel Feki, Saied insisted that Tunisia “will never be a border guard” for other countries, that it will act as a transit or residence zone for asylum seekers and that it will reject illegal migrants. according to what the Tunisie Numerique portal has collected.

The Tunisian president has explained that what is happening in Sfax “is not normal”, since he assures that sub-Saharan migrants all go to that city and not to others, and has accused criminal organizations of leading them there.

“How to explain that all these sub-Saharans cross thousands of kilometers in the desert to go directly to Sfax, and not to other regions and cities of the country? Have they known it since they were at home or are they taken by these gangs that traffic people? and organs?”, questioned the president.

That is why Saied has called for “dismantling” these types of gangs and has urged “imposing the law” on those who “host illegal migrants in their homes, rent them out or make them work.”

It should be remembered that numerous NGOs have accused the president of encouraging a campaign of xenophobic violence against sub-Saharan migrants who use the country as a springboard to reach Europe. And it is that Tunisia has become in recent years one of the main starting points for boats with which migrants from the country and those arriving from sub-Saharan Africa try to make the crossing through the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe.

In addition, the city of Sfax has been the scene of numerous shipwrecks of boats with migrants heading to the coasts of Europe. In early April, the Tunisian Coast Guard reported that more than 14,000 migrants have already been detained while trying to reach Europe since the beginning of the year.