Tunisia to contact Sarost 5 migrants' homes for repatriation

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a meeting with Union for the Mediterrnean secretary general Nasser Kamel, Jhinaoui underscored that Tunisia had taken in the 40 migrants after several European countries refused to let them enter. The foreign minister stressed that the decision to take them in had been for humanitarian reasons due to the difficult situation they were in. 

The Sarost 5, with the 40 migrants onboard, docked on August 1 in the Zarzis port after over two weeks waiting off the Tunisian coast and after the announcement on Saturday in Parliament by Prime Minister Youssef Chahed that the authorization to land had been granted. 

The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, called the decision to welcome the migrants a praiseworthy ''humanitarian initiative'', as did the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The migrants had initially left from Libya but suffered distress at sea and were rescued in Maltese Search and Rescue (SAR) waters then taken onboard the Sarost 5. 

They are from Egypt, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Sierra Leone and are now at facilities managed by the Tunisian Red Crescent in the southern city of Medenine. The migrants will be able to choose voluntary repatriation, filing an asylum request or remaining in Tunisia to work. All of these options are theoretical, however, since Tunisia has not yet adopted a law on asylum despite having introduced some protections through the new Constitution. 

Lacking more detailed regulations on the asylum system, Tunisia relies on UNHCR for Refugee Status Determination (RSD) and integration in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Tunisian Red Crescent. Several NGOs in addition to IOM offer free legal and medical assistance to refugees and irregular migrants in the country.