Calls for sanctions, denunciations, the racist remarks of Kais Saied do not pass

Tunisian President Kais Saied’s latest racist statements against sub-Saharan migrants have created anger and shock in Tunisia and elsewhere. His violent remarks against migrants, coming from a president, an academic who was until then respected and appreciated, provoked strong reactions, even calling on African states to summon the ambassadors of Tunisia.

While the Tunisian president could follow the model of Morocco where sub-Saharan migrants are welcomed and live in peace, can work and have their residence card, enjoy social and economic rights, and are very well integrated, Kais Saied chose to making them plague victims and making them bear the responsibility for the failure of its own governance.

It is neither in the habits of the Maghreb peoples nor in the behavior of good Muslims to reject the other, and even less to discriminate against skin color. The peoples of North Africa are known to be benevolent and welcoming, especially when it comes to people fleeing poverty, conflict, or deplorable living conditions in their country of origin, and Tunisians are known to have these qualities.

Migrants cross thousands of kilometers on foot, in harsh climatic conditions, without access to water and food, putting their lives at risk, in search of a better future for them and their families, a legitimate right for every human being.

But Kais Saied does not see favorably the presence of these sub-Saharan migrants and residents, although they contribute to the Tunisian economy. Sub-Saharan migrants seek to “Africanize” Tunisia and distance it from its “Arabness”, he said.

These hateful racist remarks made by the Tunisian president are inaudible, astonishing, for several reasons, in particular because Tunisia is itself an African country which sits within the African Union.

It is difficult to understand how an African state can be so “anti-African” and go against the values ​​of the African Union. Several Internet users have in this sense called for concrete measures to be taken against Tunisia because of this new authoritarian drift by President Saied.

“A lot of nonsense outrages me in life. First, the hierarchy of humans . I’m still shaken by what’s going on Tunisia and shaken by the speech of the president who, like the French leaders, makes a link between immigration and delinquency”, denounced the Tunisian psychiatrist Fatma Bouvet de la Maisonneuve.

Many Tunisians have risen up against the xenophobic remarks of their president, expressing their shame at being led by Kais Saied.

“When you wake up, the shock is still just as violent. Like the aftermath of a tragic event. We can’t get over it and it’s hard to realize that it was real. A press release that tilts a country into fascism and that we will carry forever like a defect. I’m ashamed,” wrote a Tunisian internet user.

“Saïed’s remarks do not only undermine the security of sub-Saharans in Tunisia, but embody this unexpected holy bread for all the racists of the Western world who will “refer” to his speech while reveling! We can already start counting the references! “wrote Tunisian lawyer Riadh Guerfali, citing the recovery of Eric Zemmour in France.

In Morocco also the remarks shocked. “Armed with a populism without people, Saied is doomed to sink into a specter of authoritarianism, isolationism and institutionalized racist segregation,” Professor Mehdi El Karouani wrote on Twitter.

“For the President of the Tunisia Kaïs Saied, illegal immigration from sub-Saharan Africa is a “criminal enterprise hatched at the dawn of this century to change the demographic composition of Tunisia”. An open-air negrophobia in Africa…”, reacted an African Internet user.

“Following the NEGROPHOBIC, XENOPHOBIC & RACIST remarks from this Kaïs type at the top of the Tunisian Republic against sub-Saharan blacks, we demand that the ambassadors in Tunisia be convened,” tweeted an African pan-African activist.

“In Tunisia, for the past few days, hateful and racist anti-migrant speech, propagated from the top of the state, has resulted in a black manhunt. What are our governments waiting for to summon the ambassadors of Tunisia? and order them to stop this immediately? asked Nathalie Yamb.

While student organizations of African nationals in Tunisia published a notice asking students to avoid going out at night or frequenting popular places, expressing their fear of possible racist attacks after the statements of the Tunisian presidency, nationals Ivorians immediately took matters into their own hands by contacting their embassy to return home in anticipation of a rise in hatred in Tunisia.

« +Today we desire only one thing, and that is to return home.+ Ivorian nationals in #Tunisia went to their embassy this morning to ask the authorities to organize their return to Côte d’Ivoire”, can we read on the testimonies of Ivorian nationals.

Previous Post Next Post