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Tunisia
Overview
More than a year after the events of January 14, 2011, the socioeconomic situation of Tunisia remains fragile and the country is facing important challenges. A permanent source of tension is the gap between strong migration pressure and limited legal migration channels. Tunisia has also rapidly become an immigration and transit country, with migrants coming mainly from the Maghreb and from Sub-Saharan Africa whose aim is to reach Europe through irregular migration from the Tunisian coasts. More than 25,500 Tunisians took to the sea in the aftermath of the fall of the Ben Ali regime with the hope of finding work or joining their families or friends in Europe. Furthermore, Tunisia has experienced an upsurge in immigration since the Libyan crisis started in early 2011, after which nearly 350,000 fled Libya via the Tunisian border in the course of a few months (including 97,000 Tunisian returnees). As of 31 January 2012, the vast majority of these third country nationals have either returned to their country of origin or been resettled in third countries as refugees. IOM has played an active role in the management of these extraordinary inflows of migrants at the borders, carrying out a number of activities in strict coordination with the Tunisian authorities, UN High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) and other UN agencies. Considering unemployment, and despite pro-active employment policies developed by the Tunisian authorities, the unemployment rate has increased considerably (from 14.2 per cent in 2008 to 18.3 per cent in 2011). Unemployment particularly affects young people, including a growing percentage of university graduates, whose number has skyrocketed in the last two decades. Disparities at a regional level between inner and coastal areas in terms of growth and work opportunities, as well as consequent internal migration flows, also contribute to the increase of social tensions among the young population.
Office
6 Lac du Bourget
Tunis 1053, Tunisia
Tel: +216 71 860 312
- Migration Activities
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Movement, Emergency and Post-crisis Migration Management Project 1 IOM assists refugees resettling to Belgium, Ireland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, Canada, Australia and the United States. IOM Tunisia has assisted the movement of some 861 refugees from Tunisia since the beginning of the crisis to 14 resettlement countries. IOM's role includes coordination, health assessment, treatment, providing ground transportation and air transportation to the refugees’ final destination, airport assistance at the ports of departure, transit and arrival. Project 2 IOM assists third country nationals to return to their countries of origin. IOM Tunisia has assisted in the return of over 115,000 third country nationals (TCNs), many of whom are from Sub-Saharan African nations as well as South Asia, who have fled the violence in Libya. Migration and Development Description / Donors European Commission Project 1 Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI, UN/EU Migration and Development): North Africa Regional Conference Project 2 Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI, UN/EU Migration and Development): Tunisia’s Small-scale Actors' Projects Selected within the 2009 Call for Proposals Project 3 Stabilizing At-risk Communities and Enhancing Migration Management to Support Transitions in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya Regulating Migration Description/Donors Government of Switzerland
Government of Belgium
Government of Italy
Government of Poland
Government of Germany
Office To Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, US Department of State (J/TIP)
Project 1 Family Tracing for Unaccompanied Minors in Italy Project 2 Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration of Unaccompanied Minors Project 3 Counter-trafficking Facilitating Migration Description / Donors Italian Ministry of Interior
African Development Bank
Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs
IOM Development Fund
Project 1 Best Practices on Collecting and Sharing Labour Migration Data for the Improvement of the Labour Market Information Systems Project 2 Engaging the Tunisian Youth to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals (Youth, Employment and Migration) Project 3 Migration of Tunisians to Libya: Dynamics, Challenges and Perspectivesnternational Mobility Programme