By Ayo Yusuf
Amidst criticism that it is perpetuating a brutish regime, the European Union, EU, has announced that it will soon release money to Tunisia to help curb irregular migration.
Amnesty International, EU lawmakers and migrant assistance charities have questioned whether the deal with Tunisia meets European rights standards following charges that the African country is governed by a brutal regime.
Nonetheless, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, Ana Pisonero, said Friday that the deal stands and a first payment of 127 million euros ($135 million) will be disbursed “in the coming days.”
This is part of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between Tunisia and the European Union in July to control the spate of desperate migrants who continue to attempt to enter Europe by any means necessary, leading to deaths and an unsupportable refugee situation.
Tunisia is one of the main launching points for boats carrying migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean for Europe, with most heading for Italy, in particular its island of Lampedusa.
Under the agreement, signed by commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in July, Tunisia will get 105 million euros to curb irregular migration, 150 million euros in budgetary support and 900 million euros in long-term aid.
The EU deal, strongly supported by Italy’s far-right government, aims to bolster Tunis’s coastguard to prevent boats leaving its shore. Some of the money also goes to UN agencies assisting migrants.
Commissioner Pisonero said that of the 127 million euros to be “swiftly” disbursed, 42 million euros came under the migration aspect of the July deal.
The rest was for previously agreed programmes, with 60 million euros to help Tunisia with its budget.
The North African country is struggling with high debt and poor liquidity, and has suffered bread and power shortages.
Its hopes of accessing a $1.9-billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund are hobbled by a refusal to undertake IMF-mandated reforms.
Tunisian President Kais Saied has been criticised in Brussels for increasingly authoritarian rule.
The EU ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, last week demanded the commission explain how the pact with Tunisia will not breach human rights standards.
Parliamentarians have also raised that question, pointing out that hundreds of sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia had allegedly in recent months been taken to the desert near the Libyan border and left to fend for themselves.
Tunisia has shown its anger at these criticisms last week when it barred entry to a European Parliament fact-finding delegation.
Critics say the agreement was in bad taste considering that even before the ink on the paper on which it was signed dried up, Tunisian security forces were rounding up migrants at the Libya border who are reportedly abandoned there without access to food, water or shelter.
Most worryingly, according to observers, was that the agreement was signed with no human rights conditions in place, no assessment or monitoring of its human rights impact and no mechanism to suspend cooperation in case of abuse.
According to Amnesty International, “Agreements aiming to contain people in non-EU countries don’t save lives, nor do they reduce people’s reliance on irregular routes. Rather, people on the move are forced to take more dangerous routes to avoid interception by authorities, while smugglers profit as refugees and other migrants increasingly rely on their services.
“Moreover, such agreements do nothing to resolve the problems that lead people to migrate in the first place, in search of safety or security, which will continue to occur regardless.
