France on Monday announced 25.8 million euros (US$28.2 million) in aid to Tunisia to help curb the flow of irregular migrants across the Mediterranean Sea.
French Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin announced the “bilateral aid of 25.8 million [euros] dedicated to migration issues” during a visit to Tunis.
It would allow Tunisia to “acquire the necessary equipment and organize useful training, in particular for Tunisian police and border guards,” he said at a news conference following a meeting with his Tunisian and German counterparts.
Photo: Reuters
During a meeting with Darmanin and German Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser, Tunisian President Kais Saied said that Tunisia would not “guard borders other than its own.”
“We will not accept that Tunisia becomes a country of resettlement” for migrants, either, he said.
Saied sparked a backlash in March after characterizing migrants as a demographic threat to his nation, in remarks that gave rise to a spike in attacks on sub-Saharan Africans in Tunisia.
“With a common will, a new way of seeing things, I am sure that we will find adequate solutions,” he said on Monday.
Tunisia, highly indebted and in talks for a bailout loan from the IMF, is a key launchpad for migrants and asylum seekers attempting the perilous voyage to Europe.
Darmanin defended the “European approach to the migration challenge” and said that alongside African authorities, they would “fight against the networks of smugglers” and back the return of migrants to their home nations.
Referring to the sinking of a migrant boat off Greece on Wednesday last week that killed at least 78 people, Darmanin said “too many people take reckless risks, often exploited by smugglers who are the real criminals we must fight.”
He said it is essential to “put an end to these terrible deaths at sea.”
The International Organization for Migration says 2,406 migrants died or disappeared in the Mediterranean last year.
The French pledge comes a week after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered 105 million euros to Tunisia for border management and combating human trafficking.
The EU funding, part of a larger financial aid package to boost the Tunisian economy, is contingent on the approval of the nearly US$2 billion IMF loan that has been under negotiation since last year.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
RSS