The European Commission has brushed aside allegations it funds Tunisian security forces, who stand accused of mass rape of sub-Saharan African women in an investigation by the Guardian newspaper.
On Tuesday (24 September), a commission spokesperson told reporters that EU funding for migration programmes are instead channeled into international organisations, EU member states and NGOs that are present on the ground.
The response came following the Guardian report, citing witness testimony, of young migrant women repeatedly raped by Tunisian national guards at a base near the Algerian border. The paper says the EU is funding the same guards, a charge the commission denies.
But authorities in Tunisia are also routinely rounding up sub-Saharan Africans and dumping them in the deserts near Libya and Algeria, reportedly by the Tunisian national guard.
An internal EU document obtained and published by Statewatch says plans are under way to build and equip a command-and-control centre for the Tunisian national guard at the border with Libya and to enhance cross border cooperation with Libya.
The commission is listed as the lead "actor" on the project, along with member states. It also includes a line on ensuring the safeguarding of human rights of migrants.
And a separate investigation in May by a consortium of media outlets found that vehicles used in desert dumps match tenders financed by European funds.
The Guardian also says the Tunisian national guard is in fact working alongside people smugglers.
Similar allegations were made to EUobserver by a Libyan police officer, who said the Libyan Coast Guard sells motors to smugglers after first removing them once boats of migrants are apprehended at sea.
In Libya, the commission has hired a third-party contractor to ensure its funds do not violate its 'Do No Harm' principle. And in public, it cites the report as claiming its funds have caused no harm.
But when pressed, the commission refuses to name the contractor and won't release any substantial details of the report.
It now wants to hire outside contractors in Tunisia to do the same sometime this year, posing accountability questions for a commission that declines public scrutiny.
Last year July, the European Commission along with the prime ministers of Italy and the Netherlands signed a pact with Tunisia's president Kais Saied.
The deal promised Tunisia €150m in annual budget support, some €450m of infrastructure spending, an initial €105m for migration management, and an estimated €900m in macro-financial assistance over a number of years.
Much of the money came with conditions that Tunisia agrees to IMF-led reforms, a prospect baulked by Saied who had led a crackdown on against opposition, media and civil society.
Meanwhile, over 97,000 people were recorded arriving in Italy from Tunisia by boats in 2023, over three times more than in 2022.
Most of them were sub-Saharan Africans and were driven to take the boats partly due to the worsening conditions for migrants within Tunisia, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations.
This article was updated at 9:57 on 26 September 2024 to reflect that the EU internal document was first published by Statewatch.
Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.
Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.