EURO-TUNISIAN EXTERNALIZATION: CONSIDERATIONS ONE YEAR ON THE 2023 MEMORANDUM

Abstract

In July 2023, Tunisia and the European Union signed a memorandum to strengthen cooperation be tween the parties and relaunch a very important political and institutional dialogue. Among the points of the agreement was also migration, given the EU's interest in monitoring a country with a high number of landings at that time. The EU sought to externalize the borders by promising Tunis economic support in exchange for stricter control over departures from the North African country's coast. One year on, the numbers are encouraging, with a considerable drop in the first six months of 2024. Despite these figures, there is still the problem of the lack of a Tunisian policy to control and manage incoming migrants arriving in Tunisia, and management of these human flows based only on repression could be a problem for the North African country in the long run and for the EU in terms of consistency with its values and principles. Tunisia is not new to scenarios of xenophobia and violence against the immigrant population on its territory.