Tunisia has repatriated more than 4,000 irregular migrants to their countries of origin since July 2025 as part of a large-scale operation targeting migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.
The Tunisian news agency (TAP) quoted National Guard spokesperson Houcemeddine Jbabli as saying that the operation was coordinated by the Ministry of the Interior and the Tunisian Red Crescent.
Jbabli made the announcement during the departure of a voluntary repatriation flight from Tunis-Carthage International Airport, which transported 243 Ivorian migrants back to Côte d’Ivoire.
Under the program, migrants who choose to return home are moved by bus from different urban centres to a central assembly camp before being repatriated on scheduled flights.
The authorities say the initiative is aimed at facilitating the safe and voluntary return of irregular migrants to their home countries.
Since 2023, Tunisia had found itself in the eye of the storm after international humanitarian organizations revealed that the North African country was expelling thousands of immigrants towards the border with Libya and with Algeria.
Human rights and humanitarian organizations had condemned Tunisia for ill treatments of Sub-Saharans using the North African country as transit point to reach the shores of Europe.
President Kais Saied himself had been denounced for stating that Tunisia was victim of a scheme aiming at flooding it with illegal immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa in a bid to change its demographic composition.
He did not name the people behind the scheme but his remark fueled an anti-Sub-Saharan sentiment that led to scuffles and violence between the Sub-Saharans and Tunisians in several cities including the city of Sfax known as the main transit point.
