Migrants in the desert

NGO criticizes Austria’s aid for Tunisia

Migrants in the Tunisian desert

(Bild: AP)

Austria's government is supporting a training center for the Tunisian border police. Now, research from eight countries has come to the conclusion that the police are abandoning migrants in the middle of the desert - without provisions, often robbed or mistreated.

According to the study, people are picked up in Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania specifically because of their skin color. The aid organization Doctors Without Borders confirmed that it has been observing an increase in "enormous, systematic violence" at all of the EU's external borders for some time. The normalization of this is "frightening". "We are witnessing people dying," said Marcus Bachmann from Doctors Without Borders.

Young migrants in Tunisia

(Bild: AP/Hamadi Sehli)

Austria's role?
As Austria is co-financing a training center for the Tunisian border police, it must be investigated whether this is supporting a practice that is "illegal under international law". By this, Bachmann means, for example, the turning back of migrants. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) said that the allegations must be investigated and clarified.

The team from the Center for Migration Policy (ICMPD) in Vienna, which is coordinating the project, emphasized that it was "only responsible for training, not for deployment". There had been no indications of inhumane treatment of migrants. The center is headed by former Vice Chancellor Michael Spindelegger (ÖVP).

One million euros contributed
Karner opened the training center in southwest Tunisia last November. The Austrian government is contributing just under one million euros.