The European Commission is refusing to publish the findings of a human rights investigation in Tunisia it carried out shortly before announcing a controversial migration deal with the increasingly authoritarian North African country.
An investigation by the EU Ombudsman found that the commission quietly carried out a human rights “risk management exercise” in Tunisia, but will not reveal its results.
Until now, Brussels has repeatedly stated that an assessment of the human rights impact of last year's deeply controversial deal that has been linked to countless allegations of abuse was not necessary.
Even when the watchdog – an independent body that holds EU institutions to account – formally requested the findings of its investigation into human rights in Tunisia, the European Commission refused to share them, raising concerns about what had happened. uncovered.
“The Ombudsman concluded that, despite the commission's repeated assertions that a prior HRIA was not necessary [human rights impact assessment]had in fact completed a risk management exercise for Tunisia before the [deal] was signed,” says a report from the management body published on Wednesday.
Unveiled in July 2023, the EU-Tunisia migration pact worth €150m (£125m) aims to stop people from reaching Europe and was announced amid concerns that the State of the North Africa was increasingly repressive and its police largely operated with impunity.
A Guardian investigation last month revealed abuses by EU-funded security forces in Tunisia, including accusations that members of the Tunisian national guard were raping migrant women and beating children.
Days later, evidence was handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) chronicling widespread abuse of sub-Saharan migrants by Tunisian authorities.
The situation is unlikely to have improved since then, with the re-election of Tunisia's autocratic president, Kais Saied, who has a history of launching racist tirades against immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa.
In her report, ombudsman Emily O'Reilly admonished the European Commission for hiding what it knew about human rights abuses before announcing the deal, saying it should have been “more transparent”.
O'Reilly added that an explicit human rights impact assessment would have been “preferable” because it was normally made public.
Other areas of concern identified by O'Reilly, a former journalist, include what processes are in place to suspend or review funding when human rights violations are linked to EU funding.
He urged that “concrete criteria” be agreed to determine when EU funding for projects in Tunisia would be suspended due to human rights violations.
Earlier this month, The Guardian revealed that the EU was unable to recover any of the €150m (£125m) paid to Tunisia in the migration deal despite the money being linked to human rights abuses. .
O'Reilly also wants organizations that monitor human rights in Tunisia to establish complaints mechanisms through which individuals can report alleged violations related to EU-funded projects.
In response to the watchdog, the commission said its “risk management exercise” on human rights abuses in Tunisia was something it carried out with all partner countries that could receive EU budget support.
It added that the exercise took into account similar criteria as a regular HRIA, including “human rights, democracy, rule of law, security and conflict in the relevant partner country.”
However, O'Reilly was unable to access the findings.
“However, the commission has not shared this information proactively, not even in its response to the Ombudsman's strategic initiative on this matter,” the report says.
A European Commission spokesperson said they would respond in full after the report was published.