Tunisia’s Foreign ministry claims that media reports on the situation of undocumented migrants in the country are nothing but “disinformation.”
The Tunisian Foreign ministry issued a statement, calling recent reporting on the situation of undocumented migrants in the country “damaging disinformation and a campaign for the spreading of rumors.”
The ministry claimed that the organizations engaged in making such statements were “unaware of the efforts carried out by the Tunisian authorities to protect, secure, and take care of undocumented migrants.”
“Tunisia will continue to take all legitimate and necessary measures to protect its borders and impede the illegal crossing” of these borders, the statement added, stressing that Tunisia would not be serving as a transit country or as a final destination for irregular migrants.
Appeal to UN
The statement went on to say that Tunisian authorities were collaborating with the Tunisian Red Crescent to meet the needs of migrants and to enable them to return to their countries of origin.
The ministry added that “Tunisia is asking the specialized organizations of the United Nations to fully carry out their role — that of coming to the aid of these migrant victims, and ensuring that their basic needs are met in response to this unprecedented migration flow,” instead of publishing press releases that express “their willingness to provide support to the Tunisian authorities to find humane solutions to the suffering of irregular migrants.”
Tunisia then went on to renew its appeal to deal with the issue of irregular migration and its challenges in the framework of a collective and all-encompassing approach, asking that disinformation, the spreading of rumors, and the exploiting of the situation of irregular migrants be avoided.
Source: InfoMigrants
