The E.U. Partnership with Tunisia is Sponsoring Human Rights Violations

(Photo by Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa via Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)

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In 2025, Infomigrants estimates that over 15,000 migrants were intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard while trying to cross into the European Union (E.U.) through the Mediterranean Sea. 1945 of them were women and children. Over 400 people have lost their lives trying to navigate the Central Mediterranean Sea, while 318 remain missing. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the true death toll is much higher, as many deaths at sea go unrecorded, particularly when boats sink without witnesses or survivors.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Mediterranean, recent data from the Italian government show that 40,510 migrants arrived in Italy after leaving Libya, while fewer than 3,000 fled from Tunisia. Reports from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) claim that about 733 migrants departed from Algerian shores.

This evidence suggests that the E.U.-Tunisian Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) rests on a flawed foundation. It has only been able to drastically lower departures from some specific regions. It has simply pushed migration routes back through dangerous Libyan territories, where migrants are subjected to all kinds of human rights violations. To understand these flaws, we must first understand the foundations of the agreement. 

What is the E.U.-Tunisian MoU?

The E.U.-Tunisian MoU is a Memorandum of Understanding signed on 16 July, 2023 between the European Union and Tunisian authorities. In this partnership, the E.U. primarily provided financial support and equipment to implement border control measures. In this international partnership, Tunisia consented to intercepting migrants’ boats, dismantling smuggling networks, and facilitating the return of migrants to their countries of origin.  

On paper, this partnership looks harmless, but the implementation of this policy has led to people falling back into the hands of human traffickers or dying. Yet, despite the deterrence measures, people keep coming to the E.U. through these dangerous Libyan routes, which says something about the policy’s design.

Migrants Keep Risking Their Lives Despite the Odds

There are a couple of reasons why migrants embark on this journey, risking their freedom and lives. Many of the migrants are asylum seekers, who are fleeing their countries due to imminent dangers such as active armed conflicts, political persecution, sexual violence, and economic hardships.

To many of these migrants, the journey is worth more than the pain they face back home. An example of this is the story of the 15-year-old Khaled from Syria. He embarked on this dangerous journey in 2024 and was rescued at sea while trying to escape the war in Syria.

We can also look at Raim, a 27-year-old woman who lived under the Islamic State of Syria for three years and had to leave with her 8-year-old twins to escape persecution. She was rescued from a crowded wooden boat with her two kids on 9 July 2024. 

These are just two examples. Countless others have similar harrowing stories, all driven by the same hope of finding a better life. In the course of finding a better future, some of these migrants end up being abused, killed, and trafficked.

The Problem is the Mechanism

The E.U.-Tunisian agreement has significant structural, operational, and enforcement issues. The E.U.-Tunisia agreement functioned as a non-binding political accord rather than a formalized international treaty. This ensures that the MoU cannot be brought before the Court of Justice of the European Union or the European Court of Human Rights. This design allows the Commission to bypass and avoid Parliamentary scrutiny.

Reliance on this strategy is not a technical oversight, but a deliberate act to avoid accountability. This instrument facilitated controversial practices such as establishing border controls, funding third countries to prevent departures, and enabling pushbacks, all while shielding the E.U. from direct judicial scrutiny.

Furthermore, the absence of an effective accountability or monitoring mechanism prevents the Commission from assessing whether its financial commitments align with the E.U.’s binding legal obligations under the Treaties and the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument  (NDICI) Regulations, thereby creating a significant accountability gap. 

Scholars like Garcia Andrade and Frasca have criticized this approach, arguing that it undermines democratic oversight and weakens the rule of law.

Lack of Human Rights Protection

The United Nations, human rights organizations, and other humanitarian groups have documented and warned against serious human rights violations by the Tunisian Security Forces during interception at sea. Yet, the E.U. continues to look the other way, all the while being complicit in human rights violations. 

This is because the MoU fails to include a human rights protection clause. Although the E.U. has advocated for human rights protections for decades, it has failed to establish an agreement that safeguards migrants’ fundamental human rights during and after interception. 

Human Rights Watch has accused the Tunisian Coast Guard of beating, stealing, and even abandoning migrants in detention camps or remote border areas without food or water. Between the 20th of September and the 3rd of October 2023, Human Rights Watch interviewed five migrants: a 38-year-old Cameroonian man, a 17-year-old Guinean boy, and three boys aged 16 to 18 from Senegal, all living irregularly in Tunisia, who claimed to have been kept in detention without food and water after being intercepted at sea.

Even after this, the E.U. still promises to provide Tunisia with financial packages of up to €1 billion. €105 million immediately from the E.U. budget, €105 million for migration through the E.U. Trust Fund for Africa, and up to €900 million in macro-financial assistance for development in the form of loans.

Libya is not A Safe Place For Migrants.

The majority of the intercepted migrants at sea are taken to Libya. In 2021, the IOM, UNHCR, and U.N. Refugee Agencies confirmed that over 270 migrants and refugees were handed over by ship to the Libyan Coast Guard. In the same year, it is estimated that the Libyan Coast Guard turned in more than 13,000 individuals, with many still lost at sea.

Under international maritime law, rescued individuals are taken to safe regions where their lives are no longer being threatened and can be provided with food and treatment. Libya can not be considered a safe place for migrants and refugees because Libya is a failed state with periodic civil war and rival governments clashing.

Ever since the death of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been run by rival armed militias and competing political factions that commit widespread human rights abuses. The country is divided into two blocs: the Government of National Unity (GNU), which controls the western region, also known as Tripolitania, and the Government of National Stability (GNS), which currently controls the eastern region, mainly Cyrenaica and parts of Fezzan.

These two groups fight for control of the country’s oil wealth, making it a frequent target of political violence and armed conflict. The United Nations claims that from January 2024 to December 2025, migrants and refugees in Libya have been subjected to inhumane treatment as part of systematic human rights abuses, including sexual violence, extortion, human trafficking, killings, and torture.

Organizations that Tried to Help and the Legal Backlash

Several humanitarian agencies and NGOs have attempted to provide assistance to migrants stranded in Tunisia, offering food, shelter, and medical support. However, their efforts have often been met with severe legal backlash from the Tunisian authorities.

In May of 2024, Tunisian authorities shut down the Tunisian Council of Refugees (TCR) and arrested its founder and director Mustapha Djamali, along with program manager Abderrazek Krimi and four other staff members. They were prosecuted on charges of facilitating illegal entry and sheltering undocumented migrants after the organisation issued a hotel tender to accommodate refugees.

Yet, the TCR’s actual role was limited to cooperating with the UNHCR in conducting initial screening of asylum applications. Beyond this, it provided emergency housing and medical assistance to asylum seekers, fulfilling essential humanitarian functions rather than engaging in unlawful activities.

Since then, Tunisian authorities have paused the organization’s activities and frozen its account, preventing it from paying employees, service providers, and electricity bills and leaving it in debt.

Between July 10 and November 2025, Tunisian authorities targeted more than 14 civil society organisations. Among those affected were the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD), the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES), the Naswat Tunis branch of the World Organisation Against Torture, and (My Dream), whose prominent human rights leader Saadia Mosbah faces a heavy prison sentence.

The crackdown has gone beyond judicial harassment to include freezing assets, restricting bank transactions, suspending court activities, and detaining aid workers, with authorities justifying their actions under the pretext of combating suspicious funding and safeguarding “national interest.” Yet this pattern is far from new; the Tunisian authorities have a reputation for escalating repression against independent voices in Tunisia

The E.U. Continues to Empower and Sponsor Human Rights Violations

Although extensive evidence highlights severe human rights violations against refugees and migrants in Tunisia and Libya, the E.U. celebrates this migration cooperation as a success. According to the Freedom of Information (FOI) disclosure in April 2026, Tunisia and other countries will benefit from a €675 million migration support package from 2025 to 2027.

The E.U.-Tunisian MoU has not eased the situation; instead, it has deepened the distress of migrants at sea, exposing the systematic abuse and heightening the risk of deportation into desert regions or trafficking networks.

Edited by Khushi Mehta