Berlin, 4 October 2024. On the background of the establishment of a Tunisian Search and Rescue Region (SRR) in June 2024, 63 humanitarian, human rights and civil search and rescue organisations emphasise in a joint statement that Tunisia is not a place of safety for people rescued from distress at sea. SOS Humanity, together with organisations such as Sea-Watch, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, today published the statement calling on Tunisian authorities to end human rights violations against people on the move and the crackdown on civil society. They critise that the EU and its Member States violate international human rights by increasing their cooperation with Tunisia in order to keep migrants off European shores.

“Refugees are not safe in Tunisia,” declares Marie Michel, political expert of SOS Humanity. “Human rights violations in Tunisia against people on the move have been documented in hundreds of cases, especially since spring 2023. There is no asylum system and no protection for refugees. For us as a non-governmental search and rescue organisation it is therefore impossible to bring people we have rescued from distress in the Mediterranean Sea to Tunisia, because this would mean breaching international law. We are obliged by law to bring survivors to a place of safety. Tunisia, just as Libya, is not a safe place. SOS Humanity and our co-signatories strongly criticize the intensified cooperation by the European Union and its Member States with Tunisian actors committing human rights violations. The EU has supported the establishment of the TUN SRR, although this means replicating the Libyan model: shifting the responsibility for search and rescue activities to actors who perform illegal pull-backs of people fleeing, who constantly breach international law and violate human rights. In addition, we are worried that the establishment of the TUN SRR will further curtail the already shrinking humanitarian space in the central Mediterranean, jeopardising our urgently needed search and rescue missions.”

The undersigning organisations are urging the EU and its Member States to call on Tunisia in the face of their upcoming presidential elections to end human rights violations against refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants. They demand that Tunisian Search and Rescue Zone in June 2024, Europe needs to ensure that international law and human rights are followed, both at sea and on Tunisian land.

Find here the full text of the Joint Statement: Tunisia is not a Place of Safety for People Rescued at Sea!