Radicalized Tunisians soon expelled from France?
Friday, November 6, the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, made the trip to Tunis to meet his Tunisian counterpart Taoufik Charfeddine.
France wants to expel around twenty Tunisians suspected of being radicalized.
Tunisia is "ready to receive any Tunisian," Tunisian Interior Minister Taoufik Charfeddine told reporters after an interview with his French counterpart.
"But this must be done under the conditions and regulations" provided for by international law and "preserving the dignity of the Tunisian", he added.
Gérald Darmanin was to present during his visit a list of Tunisian nationals in an irregular situation in France and suspected of being radicalized, an approach he intends to repeat on Sunday in Algeria, according to his entourage.
Long planned, Gérald Darmanin's visit took a new turn with the attack which left three people dead at the basilica of Nice (south-eastern France) at the end of October.
The alleged perpetrator, Brahim Aouissaoui, seriously injured during his arrest, is a 21-year-old Tunisian who recently arrived in Europe.
It is difficult to know if Brahim Aouissaoui became radicalized in Tunisia or after his arrival in Europe at the end of September, and if the operation was planned before his departure.
"The result of the Tunisian investigation will be decisive," a source close to the French investigation told AFP last week.
Gérald Darmanin, who began his tour of Italy on Friday morning, stressed from Rome that the fight "against terrorism is the fight we are waging against an ideology", described as "Islamist".
He called for "a cultural fight against this ideology, its finance, its pharmacies and its support abroad".
"In the last 30 terrorists who hit French soil, 22 were French, only eight were foreign", he stressed, estimating that the "danger" was "also and obviously above all endogenous".
Gérald Darmanin expected in Malta and Algiers
In addition to his Tunisian counterpart, Gérald Darmanin also met President Kaïs Saïed, who assured that the Tunisian authorities "would try to find a solution to current and future obstacles" in terms of expulsion.
This tour will continue in Malta, where Gérald Darmanin notably wishes to discuss the reform of the European asylum and immigration system, before a visit to Algiers on Sunday, on security and the fight against irregular immigration.
These displacements follow a visit to Morocco in October, against a backdrop of rising clandestine departures from the Maghreb, fueled by unemployment among the youth and a lack of political prospects.
Among the 231 foreigners in an irregular situation in France and followed for radicalization, 70% are from the Maghreb and Russia, where the minister must also go "in the coming days", indicated his entourage.
Controversial subject in Tunisia
Regarding the Tunisians, there are about twenty people sentenced, under the obligation to leave the territory, and whose expulsion has so far been refused by Tunisia, which invokes restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, says a French source.
The subject is controversial in Tunisia, where the possibility of a return to the country of Tunisians who joined jihadist groups in Syria had triggered hostile demonstrations in 2016.
Several organizations, including the Tunisian League of Human Rights or the Forum of Economic and Social Rights, deplored in a petition "political pressure against the Tunisian government" by European governments which "take advantage of the fear caused by the appalling crimes committed by terrorists to get rid of undocumented migrants in defiance of law and justice ".
Discussions also focused on common law expulsions.
The objective is to "restart the machine" of expulsions to these countries, we confirm in the entourage of the minister.
Gérald Darmanin must propose "health protocols" because the process is particularly hampered by the restrictions linked to the pandemic.
Taoufik Charfeddine called for managing irregular migration not only in a safe way, but by "development, cultural and economic solutions".
After a peak in departures in 2011, followed by a sharp drop, illegal emigration attempts have increased again since 2017 and Tunisians are this year the most numerous among migrants arriving illegally in Europe via Italy.
With AFP
The summary of the week
France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 application
google-play-badge_FR