Several countries have said they are repatriating their citizens from Tunisia after President Kais Saied ordered security forces to take "urgent measures" against "hordes" of sub-Saharan African migrants, accusing them of being behind a wave of crime without evidence. Scores of sub-Saharan African migrants have been evicted from their homes and released from their jobs while reports of attacks on migrants are on the rise.
Guinea and Ivory Coast are repatriating hundreds of their citizens from Tunisia, officials announced on Wednesday (March 1).
The measure comes after Tunisian President Kais Saied said last week that there had been a conspiracy to alter the country's racial makeup, ordering security forces to stop all illegal immigration and to expel any migrants living in Tunisia illegally.
"The most urgent thing is to save lives, to prevent injuries," French news agency AFP reported Ivorian government spokesman Amadou Coulibaly as saying of Tunisia's crackdown on Sub-Saharan African migrants. National carrier Air Cote d'Ivoire is scheduled to repatriate around 500 citizens within the next 72 hours, Coulibaly added.
An Ivorian diplomat noted there have been delays due to penalties the migrants must pay, which often surpass €1,000 ($1,070), AFP reported.
According to a Guinean foreign ministry official and a senior official at Conakry airport, the west African country's ruling junta had leased an airplane to bring back some 50 Guineans in Tunisia who said they wanted to return.
Foreign Minister Morissanda Kouyate is also set to visit Tunisia "to provide urgent support for Guineans."
Estimated 21,000 migrants lose livelihoods overnight
Several countries have announced repatriation flights for volunteer returnees as scores of African migrants, especially citizens from Ivory Coast and Mali, request their embassies to return home.
President Saied has instructed security forces to take "urgent measures" against "hordes" of sub-Saharan African migrants, accusing them of crime and suggesting that there had been a conspiracy to change Tunisia's demographics.
Many of the estimated 21,000 sub-Saharan African migrants in Tunisia lost their jobs and housing overnight.
"After the president's speech, we were attacked. We are afraid. We were kicked out of the house," Berry Dialy Stephan, who is seeking repatriation from the Ivory Coast's Tunis embassy, told Reuters.
Foufana Abou, also a migrant living in Tunisia, told Reuters people in his district had insulted him and threw stones and pieces of wood at him.
In a second statement last week, the Tunisian president denied being racist and said he only wanted police to implement Tunisian law.
The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), a group that works with migrants, said it had documented hundreds of arbitrary arrests and hundreds of evictions without notice. It said it had also documented some violent assaults, including with knives, that authorities had been slow to respond to.
Saied's critics argue the migrant crackdown is in line with the president's pursuit of a parallel crackdown on political opponents, accusing them of plotting against the government with foreign support.
With AFP and Reuters