Tunisia urges Europe to increase assistance to tackle migration crisis

By Ahmed Elumami and Tarek Amara

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Tunisia's prime minister urged European countries on Wednesday to increase financial assistance to his country and others to help tackle the flow of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.

Tunisia has faced protests by local residents and extra financial costs over migrants arriving from other countries in the hope of travelling on to Europe by sea, risking perilous journeys on what in many cases are dilapidated boats.

Thousands of migrants are now concentrated in southern Tunisian towns such as Amra and Jbeniana, many of them fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East in the hope of a better life in Europe.

"More assistance must be provided to countries such as Tunisia. The aid provided is insufficient to address the problem", Tunisian Prime Minister Ahmed Hachani told a migration conference in Tripoli.

He said Tunisia was a victim country and was exhausting its public finances on efforts to deal with the migration crisis, which is an additional burden for a government that was already facing other problems.

"There are towns that have absorbed migrants beyond their ability," he said, referring to Amra and Jbeniana.

The European Union disbursed 150 million euros ($164 million) to Tunisia in March as budget support for financial stability and economic, as part of a deal aimed at fighting illegal migration.

"There has been money spent for 10 or 50 years on this problem, and this problem has not been solved," Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba told the conference. "This money must be spent there (in the countries of origin) and not in detention camps, whether in Libya or Europe."

As of January 2024, there were more than 706,000 migrants in Libya, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in May. Libyan Interior Minister Emad Trabulsi said, however, that Libya was hosting 2.5 million refugees.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told the conference that the situation could not be resolved without tackling the problem in the countries of origin.

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(Reporting by Tarek Amara and Ahmed Elumami, Additional reporting Tala Ramadan in Dubai, Editing by Timothy Heritage)