"The European Commission has started work on a new regional program to combat migrant smuggling and human trafficking in North Africa: the initiative will support specific activities against smuggling, particularly in Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia".
The Commission itself let ANSA know.
Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson will travel to Tunisia at the end of April to "discuss the management of migration with the support of the EU" and put into practice the operational partnership proposed during the last Foreign Affairs Council.
In Tunisia - according to reports - the Commission intends to discuss the prevention of irregular departures, with particular attention to the launch of an anti-trafficking partnership, the increase of search and rescue operations, repatriations and reintegration (from Tunisia to sub-Saharan Africa) and the strengthening of opportunities for legal migration by Member States.
The EU executive is "aware" of the "particularly complicated" situation in the central Mediterranean and recalls that, for the short term, the Action Plan presented last November implements "a global approach with operational and financial measures" aimed at face the challenges at stake.
"The Commission coordinates the implementation of the Action Plan and is in close contact with Italy, the other Member States and the agencies that provide support on the ground", specified a spokesperson.
Tunisian Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar met Antonio Tajani at the Farnesina today, and after the meeting he stressed that Tunisia "is willing to strengthen cooperation with all partners to combat human trafficking and to protect migrants. We are ready to do
everything possible", but "the medium and long-term solution is cheap".
“We have to stabilize people on the ground. We are already
exploring together with Italy concrete projects for professional training and the recruitment of competent workers", added Ammar. Underlining that "the good health of the Tunisian economy is also in the interest of Italy and its European partners". Tunisian economy has considerable potential, there are already 900 Italian companies in the country". We need to "rehabilitate our economy and we count on Italy also as a member of the EU", added the minister, referring to the international loans that his government wait.
Tajani, for his part, declared that "We are in favor of economic support to encourage the growth of this important country, Italy will also do its part towards the IMF. Italy has a strategic vision on Tunisia" .
"Since the beginning, we have raised the issue of reforms in Tunisia and of funding linked to the progressive implementation of the reforms", but at the same time "we respect democracy", he added, because "it is not up to us to decide who should govern the Tunisia, there is a legitimate government. We must respect our interlocutors, not replace them. We are not colonizers".
And in the meantime, another 14 bodies were recovered off the coast of Tunisia, bringing the death toll from the sinking of a migrant boat to 24.
This was announced by the spokesman of the Tunisian National Guard, specifying that among them there are at least six women and the Tunisian smuggler.
The Tunisian Coast Guard announced yesterday that it had recovered ten bodies of sub-Saharan migrants victims of the shipwreck off the coast of
Sfax.
The same source also announced that 41 Tunisian migrants, including five women and nine children, were rescued off Sousse in another incident.
