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As Tunisia tries to force returns, Syrians set sights on Europe [1]
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Date: 2025-06
Assem*, 37, is waiting for the right opportunity to cross to Europe. He’s Syrian, and he and his family have been living in Tunisia since 2017. He was happy when he found out that Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president from 2000 to 2024, had fled. But he doesn’t want to return.
“I lost my house and my family,” Assem said. “I have no reason to return to Syria. There’s nothing for me there but regret and pain. Even if I wanted to return, it’s not safe to do so.”
Yet Assem doesn’t see Tunisia as a long-term solution either. He’s found safety there, but not opportunity. “No one is bombing us here. But safe doesn’t mean it’s easy,” said Assem. “Life is hard, for Tunisian people too. There are no secure job opportunities, and prices are getting higher. I want to reach Europe to give my children a better future.”
Now, safety is also evaporating. Authorities, driven by a domestic anti-migrant agenda, have stepped up efforts to force refugees and migrants out in recent months. This has combined with a lucrative migration partnership with the EU, which means additional efforts are also being made to keep people away from Europe’s borders. Both leaving and staying is becoming more dangerous.
In March, hundreds of people were intercepted at sea by Tunisian forces, and reportedly abandoned in the desert on the border to Algeria and Libya. In April, officials burned down an informal refugee camp and dismantled several others around the port city of Sfax. They displaced around 10,000 people, some of whom were then forcibly deported. Most were from Sudan and sub-Saharan Africa.
While Syrians have generally avoided the worst of these violent anti-migrant policies, many in Tunisia live in precarity and extreme poverty. openDemocracy asked two such families what al-Assad’s fall meant for their future. One said they would continue to build their new home where they were, but remained concerned about their long-term stability. The other said they didn’t want to stay in Tunisia, but wouldn’t be heading back to Syria either. For both families, the treacherous sea crossing to Europe seemed more promising than returning home.
They are not alone. Data provided by SOS Méditerranée, a European civil organisation rescuing people at sea, shows that Syrians are continuing to travel north from North Africa. For the first three months of 2025, 69 out of 435 people rescued by their ship, Ocean Viking, were Syrians. This makes them the third biggest nationality group to be rescued in the central Mediterranean, after survivors from Bangladesh and Pakistan.
A hostile environment for migrants
Tunisia hosts around 10,000 registered refugees, over 2,000 of whom are Syrian. In addition, UN estimates suggest there are tens of thousands of unregistered people living in informal camps across the country. Registered refugees get some support from UNHCR, but new applications were suspended in June last year at the request of the government.
Many Syrians still receive financial support from UNHCR, while people from Sudan and sub-Saharan Africa have seen their support cut. This unofficial policy was confirmed to openDemocracy by a UNHCR representative (who wished to remain anonymous as they weren’t permitted to publicly comment).
In 2023, President Kais Saied claimed that sub-Saharan migrants were entering the country as part of a conspiracy to “change the demographic makeup” of the country. The comments incited a wave of mob violence against Black migrants across Tunisia. The same year, the EU promised €105m in funding to Tunisia for border management.
A 2024 investigation by Lighthouse Reports revealed that the National Guard had rounded tens of thousands of Black people up and “dumped” them in the desert and remote areas, reportedly to prevent them from reaching Europe.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/as-tunisia-tries-to-force-returns-syrians-set-sights-on-europe-migration/
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