Tunisian chief to ECOWAS chairman: “I’m a proud African”

Tunisia’s president hosted Wednesday (Mar. 8) his counterpart from Guinea-Bissau.

The go to to Tunis of the Ecowas chairman got here amid racist assaults targetting sub-Saharan migrants within the north African nation.

Throughout a nationwide safety council final month, president Kaies Saied linked undocumented immigrants to violence and crimes.

From the Carthage palace, he denied racism insisting on his will to uphold the legislation.

“There may be the Tunisian state, the sovereign Tunisian legality regarding the standing of foreigners, regardless that they’re our brothers; they could not have Tunisian nationality, however they’re our brothers. I consider that any nation would not settle for parallel jurisdictions to the state’s jurisdictions.”

Rights teams have  reported a spike in vigilante violence together with stabbings of black Africans, because the President’s preliminary feedback whereas migrants say they’ve been thrown out of their dwellings en masse and handed over to “mob justice”.

Students and economic migrants from countries such as Guinea, Mali and Ivory Coast fleeing Tunisia were repatriated in recent days.

Earlier this week, Tunisian authorities introduced measures to inquotes “enhance situations of foreigners’ in Tunisia and ease procedures” for these in search of to place issues proper”.

President Cissoko Emballo gave credence to the thesis of a misinterpretation of Saied speech.

“I would not consider that you simply, the president of Tunisia, the nation of Bourguiba, might be xenophobic or racist. You your self are African.

– Kais Saied: I’m certainly, and a proud African.”

The African Union issued on Feb. 25 a statement urging all member states to “deal with all migrants with dignity wherever they arrive from” and “chorus from racialized hate speech that might deliver individuals to hurt.”

Tunisia’s Overseas ministry rejected the assertion, saying it accommodates “baseless phrases & accusations” and was constructed on “a misunderstanding of positions of the Tunisian authorities.”