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Statement against the racist and securitarian drift in Tunisia: Call for action and solidarity

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Country/Region

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.

Image: Stephen Downes, CC BY-NC 2.0

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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

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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:

• the cessation of arbitrary prosecutions and arrests against sub-Saharan migrants
• the immediate release of arrested migrants
• the denunciation of racist remarks and acts and the application of law 2018-50 (anti-racist) of October 23, 2018

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

• Comité pour le respect des libertés et des droits de l’homme en Tunisie (CRLDHT)
• Association démocratique des tunisiens en France (ADTF)
• Association des tunisiens en France (ATF)
• Collectif 3C
• Fédération des Tunisiens Citoyens des deux Rives (FTCR )
• Le Pont de Genève
• Réseau euromaghrébin citoyenneté et culture (REMCC)
• Uni’T Tunisie
• Union des travailleurs immigrés tunisiens (UTIT)
• Courant démocratique France-Nord
• El Jomhouri France
• El Massar France
• Ettakatol France
• Parti des Travailleurs - section France

Soutien

Associations

• Agir pour le changement et la démocratie en Algérie (ACDA)
• Assemblée des citoyens originaires de Turquie (ACORT)
• Association Femmes plurielles (FP)
• Association des marocains en France (AMF)
• Association de défense des droits de l’homme au Maroc (ASDHOM)
• Association des travailleurs maghrébins de France (ATMF)
• Association de taxation des transactions financières et pour l’action citoyenne (ATTAC)
• Cedtim / IPAM
• CIBELE (Ile de France)
• Coalition internationale des sans-papiers et migrants (CISPM)
• Collectif des sans-papiers 75 (CSP75)
• CORENS (Hauts de France)
• Droits Ici et là-bas (DIEL)
• Europe solidaire sans frontières (ESSF)
• Fondation Frantz Fanon (FFF)
• Forum Palestine Citoyenneté
• Front uni des immigrations et quartiers populaires (FUIQP)
• Groupe d’information et de soutien aux travailleurs immigrés (GISTI)
• Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH)
• Migreurop
• Mémorial 98
• Le Mouvement de la Paix
• Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples (MRAP)
• NECFA, échanges franco-algérien (Paris)
• Le Réseau d’Actions contre l’Antisémitisme et tous les Racismes (RAAR)
• Réseau euromed France (REF)
• Réseau féministe «Ruptures »
• Riposte Internationale
• Solidarité Internationale LGBTQI+
• SOS Racisme
• Statewatch (Royaume Unie)
• Union Juive Française pour la Paix (UJFP)

Unions

• Confédération française démocratique du travail (CFDT)
• Conf2dération générale du travail ( CGT)
• Fédération des syndicats unifiés (FSU)
• Union syndicale Solidaires
• Union nationale des étudiants de France (UNEF)

Parties

• Ensemble
• Europe écologie les verts (EELV)
• Pour une écologie populaire et sociale (PEPS)
• La France Insoumise (LFI)
• Mouvement des progressistes (MDP)
• Nouveau parti anticapitaliste (NPA)
• Parti communiste français (PCF)
• Parti communiste des ouvriers de France (PCOF)

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Statement initiated by Fédération des Tunisiens Citoyens des deux Rives (FTCR). Translation by Statewatch.

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