Amid terror attacks France and Italy are planning to alert the Tunisia migrant vessels

On Friday, The Italian minister, Luciana Lamorgese, and French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin held discussions in Rome. Italy and France are thinking about airplanes and boats to warn Tunisia to reverse the clandestine boats ferrying migrants north to the Italian coasts.

Tunisians are escaping their nations due to the coronavirus and its impacts on their economy. This year is the largest contingent of migrants that have been landing in Italy. These migrants are directly coming from Tunisia via boats into Italy.

In past years, most of the transients arriving at Italy’s southern shores originated from sub-Saharan Africa and traversed the Mediterranean in boats dispatched by traffickers in Libya.

Darmanin refused to blame Italy for its treatment of the Tunisian migrants, who arrived on Italy’s Lampedusa Island this Sept. They were isolated under pandemic guidelines and got expulsion papers from Italian officials before arriving in France in Oct.

I had never thought that there was something inadequate in how Italy dealt with the case, Darmanin stated, reacting to a question at a press meeting with Lamorgese after their discussions. Rather, he expressed gratitude toward Lamorgese and Italy’s intelligence services for exchanging data after the Nice attack.

Tunisia has been targeted many times by militant attacks and has paid a heavy price for battling against terror groups. Especially for picking the path to freedom and democracy, Darmanin added.

Lamorgese stated that during their discussion, they have decided to deploy maritime or air resources that could make the Tunisian officials aware of eventual departures and assist them with blocking the boats, and in their independence that we would prefer not to disregard, she added.

Under the arrangement, there would be giving an alert to the Tunisian officials to make it simpler to track the boats that depart from that region to go to the Italian coastline, Lamorgese stated.

Both the ministers met a day following French President Emmanuel Macron said that his nation is fortifying its border controls after recent terror attacks.

French President Emmanuel Macron had comprehended Muslim outrage at the cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, however, violence was inadmissible and he’d safeguard his country’s freedom, he stated in an interview with Al Jazeera. Many Islamic nations have boycotted French goods in order to protest over the French President’s statement on Charlie Hebdo magazine’s controversial cartoons.

Tunisia is one of the nations that have a repatriation deal with Italy. However, with a huge number of Tunisians showing up via the sea route and about 100 expelled transients are returned to North African countries via air.

However, importance has been given to check individuals that are believed to be a threat to the nation. There were no hints that the knife attacker in Nice, Ibrahim Issaoui, posed any such danger, Lamorgese added.

During Darmanin’s whistle-stop Tunis meeting with ally Taoufik Charfeddine was focused on Tunisia’s fight against terrorism and continuous migrant settlement.

On Friday, Tunisian civil rights organizations urged the European nations not to pressurize the Tunisian administration concerning the issue of irregular migrants and connecting it to terrorism.

Article Credit:South China Morning Post/ The Middle East Monitor/ Arab News