Following the statement issued on Wednesday evening by the UNHCR in Tunisia on the background of the attempted storming by refugees, asylum seekers and migrants of its premises in Tunis, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad has clarified the incident. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the department said that “the intervention of Tunisian security units was carried out in response to the request of the UNHCR representation, following the intrusion into its premises and the failure of several attempts to negotiate with the protesters. The ministry stressed the need to “highlight the truth about the facts, all the facts, and to hold positions consistent with the purpose of the requests made by the UNHCR representative during his meetings with the Tunisian official authorities. The objective is, according to the department, to inform public opinion objectively about the facts and the background of these incidents. On Tuesday evening, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was deeply concerned about the violent demonstrations at its headquarters in Tunis, calling for “dialogue and de-escalation”. The UNHCR said its staff “were not present at the scene, as protesters blocked access points to the UNHCR offices,” adding that “the UNHCR has received reports of numerous arrests among the protesters. For its part, the Ministry of the Interior issued a statement on Wednesday evening in which it put forward its version of events. According to the ministry, on April 11, 2023, the legal representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) went to the headquarters of the police station on the berges du lac to lodge a complaint against sub-Saharan migrants who had tried to storm its headquarters and premises. According to the UNHCR legal representative, the attackers were armed with stones, clubs, iron bars and gas bottles and caused significant material damage, including the destruction of UNHCR equipment and the removal of three iron doors. According to the legal representative, quoted in the Interior Department’s press release, the demonstrators tore down the barbed wire fencing around the Office’s headquarters and intimidated and threatened UNHCR staff, preventing some of them from accessing their offices. As soon as they were informed, the police went to the scene, in coordination with the prosecutor’s office. Nevertheless, the demonstrators continued to throw stones and solid objects at the police officers, causing damage to private homes and nearby businesses as well as to administrative and private vehicles, injuring several more security officers. As a result of these incidents, the department added, the public prosecutor’s office at the Tunis I court of first instance ordered the opening of an investigation for attempted intrusion and destruction of a diplomatic establishment and for serious violence against a public official in the exercise of his duties, and the attack on the property of others. In view of these charges, the prosecutor’s office decided to keep the group of protesters involved in these incidents in detention. That attempts to attack and break into the UNHCR headquarters have increased recently, and although negotiations were conducted with the protesters by the security forces to appease them, the protesters’ reaction was often violent, culminating in today’s incident. Settled in the vicinity of the UNHCR premises on the banks of the lake in Tunis, “these sub-Saharan African nationals are mostly seeking evacuation to third countries”. They were “on edge after the UNHCR suspended the examination of their files”, according to witnesses quoted by foreign media. On April 3, 2023, UNHCR in Tunisia said on its Facebook page that it had stopped “all registration and pre-registration activities from March 31 to April 17 due to a migration of the registration and identity system. A “temporary” suspension that concerns “all UNHCR operations worldwide,” according to UNHCR.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse