01 March 2023
A statement circulated amongst Migreurop members and others by the Fédération des Tunisiens Citoyens des deux Rives (FTCR). Statewatch is a signatory. A demonstration will take place outside the Tunisian embassy in Paris on Friday 3 March.
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Image: Stephen Downes, CC BY-NC 2.0
Manifestation de soutien aux migrants subsahariens en Tunisie/Demonstration in support of sub-Saharan migrants in Tuisia
Vendredi 3 Mars 2023 17h-19h, Ambassade de Tunisie à Paris, Place André Tardieu 75007, Métro Saint François Xavier Ligne 13
STOP THE RACIST AND SECURITARIAN DRIFT
NO TO HATE SPEECH PROMOTED BY THE HIGHEST TUNISIAN AUTHORITIES!
Shaken by an unprecedented authoritarian drift, Tunisia has just taken another inadmissible step: the adoption by the Head of State and the National Security Council of a series of measures arising directly from racist and xenophobes that target sub-Saharan migrants.
The official declarations at the highest level of the State thus come to consolidate a populist momentum which takes the place of a political line, a hateful campaign which has been carried out for some time and which risks shaking the social fabric and a population already suffering the consequences of socio-economic crises.
This racist drift, triggered by a minority, is a blow to the aspirations of the revolution based, it must be remembered, on the values of freedom, justice, equality and dignity.
Initially supported by a few groups and relayed by certain pages on social networks close to the Tunisian government, this campaign takes up the worst failings of the ideologies and themes advocated by identitarian and far-right movements in Europe and the United States. Indeed, in addition to the fact that they demand the expulsion of sub-Saharan migrants, the initiators of this campaign take up the xenophobic thesis of the "great replacement". The latter do not even hesitate to ask for the repeal of the law criminalizing racist acts, remarks and discrimination, a law adopted on 23 October 2018.
We, Tunisians living abroad who, at one time or another of our journey in the host countries, have been confronted with xenophobic discourse and racist acts, sometimes even going as far as murder, cannot accept such a spread and trivialisation of hateful and racist speech in Tunisia.
We count on the active solidarity of all those who have always fought against racism and xenophobia and call on them to stand up against this ignominy with us and to help us in our fight for a free, democratic and welcoming Tunisia.
We demand:
We call on all democrats and civil society in Tunisia to unreservedly condemn this new official discourse foreign to our history and our culture and these hateful and xenophobic campaigns.
We urge them to demonstrate their active solidarity with sub-Saharan migrants.
We call on Tunisians in France and abroad to actively denounce racism and xenophobia in our country.
We call on all democrats in France and in Europe for support and solidarity.
RACISM IS NOT AN OPINION, IT IS A CRIME! IT MUST BE FOUGHT!
First signatories
Soutien
Associations
Unions
Parties
Statement initiated by Fédération des Tunisiens Citoyens des deux Rives (FTCR). Translation by Statewatch.
Press release originally published by the Forum Tunisien des Droits Economiques et Sociaux (FTDES) on 16 February.
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