The African Union (AU) has condemned Tunisia and asked it to avoid “racialised hate speech” in response to President Kais Saied’s remarks directed at migrants from other parts of the continent.
On Tuesday, Saied ordered the deportation of unauthorized migrants from Tunisia, claiming that immigration was a scheme to change the demographic character of his country. Local rights activists criticised his words, calling them “racist”.
The AU Commission said in a statement late Friday that it had summoned Tunisia’s delegate for an urgent meeting to express “great astonishment and concern at the form and substance” of the remarks on behalf of the continent-wide group.
“The Chairperson of the African Union Commission H. E. Moussa Faki Mahamat strongly condemns the shocking statement issued by Tunisian authorities targeting fellow Africans which go against the letter and the spirit of our Organization and founding principles,” read the statement.
“The undeclared goal of the successive waves of illegal immigration is to consider Tunisia a purely African country that has no affiliation to the Arab and Islamic nations,” he said.
Saied’s comments were praised by the French far-right politician Eric Zemmour. This comes as his campaign of arrests has caused widespread fear among sub-Saharan Africans as well as Black Tunisians.
Tunisian rights groups have accused Saied of hate speech.
“It is a racist approach just like the campaigns in Europe,” Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesperson for the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), told Reuters news agency on Tuesday. “The presidential campaign aims to create an imaginary enemy for Tunisians to distract them from their basic problems.”
The president said those accusing him of racism “want division and discord and seek to damage our relations with our brothers”.
Saied said he was not racist and that migrants living in Tunisia legally had nothing to fear.
On Saturday, rights groups planned to hold a demonstration to protest against Saied’s comments and the clampdown on migrants and refugees.
According to official figures quoted by the FTDES, Tunisia, which has a population of some 12 million, is home to more than 21,000 citizens from sub-Saharan African countries.
