Tunisia said Sunday it would not be
border guards for other countries amid a surge in flows to
Italy.
"Tunisia cannot under any circumstances act as a border guard
for other countries," said Tunisian Interior Minister Kamel Feki
in a video statement released by his ministry.
Feki stressed that the north African country cannot absorb
massive flows of irregular migrants beyond its social and
financial capacities, nor can it act as a host country.
And he added that the immigration issue requires reciprocal
concessions from the richer nations.
So he sent a message to the migrant rescue NGOs, which he said
are manipulating the migration issue for the interests of the
Europeans.
Italy and Europe signed a memorandum of understanding with Tunis
this summer providing for a rise in the fight against
traffickers and subsidies to keep migration at bay, the first
tranche of which was released this week.
Italy's rightwing government says NGOs are a pull factor for
migrants while critics says NGOs only rescue less than 10% of
the migrants in the central Mediterranean who end up in Italy.
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