Given the increasingly uncertain economic and political situation in Tunisia, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sees a risk that the number of refugee flows across the Mediterranean will increase significantly. Up to 900,000 people could leave the North African country for Europe if the situation does not stabilize in the foreseeable future, Meloni warned at the EU summit in Brussels.
Tunisia is heavily indebted and urgently needs to borrow more money to balance this year’s budget. Tunisia has been negotiating with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since 2021 on a rescue loan of two billion euros. But President Kais Saied has been accused of racism after he made statements against migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. The World Bank, Tunisia’s second largest lender, recently suspended new loans to the North African state.
Another 190 people rescued from distress at sea
The rescue ship Geo Barents, operated by the aid organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF), has rescued 190 people on board an unseaworthy boat. There were several unaccompanied minors on board. The NGO ship Louise Michel also participated in the rescue operation, MSF reported on Friday.
258 migrants arrived in the Sicilian port of Messina on Friday aboard the Italian coastguard ship Corsi. The migrants are part of a group of 750 migrants rescued on Thursday during two rescue operations off the coast of Calabria and Sicily. The wave of migration to Lampedusa is now continuing. On Friday, 167 people reached the island between Sicily and Tunisia. They were aboard four boats that were intercepted by the Coast Guard.
Flight dominates Italy’s domestic politics
In Italy, there has been discussion for weeks about the arrival of thousands of migrants, who travel from Africa across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy in mostly unseaworthy boats. According to official figures, the country has already registered more than 20,000 boat migrants since the beginning of January – up from around 6,000 in the previous two years.
Time and again there are devastating boating accidents while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. At the end of February, a shipwreck occurred off the coast of Calabria, killing at least 90 people. Since then, Italy’s right-wing government centered around Meloni and the Coast Guard have been massively criticized – the accusation is that not everything possible was done to save them.
Source: Krone
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