Tunisia detains and deports Palestinian refugees

The Tunisian authorities have detained 30 Palestinian refugees at Carthage Airport, including three children under ten years old and four women and young men persecuted by the Syrian regime for refusing to join the army. All had managed to escape from the conflict in Syria.

A group of human rights activists in Tunisia, Syria and Palestine said that the Tunisian authorities continue to deport Palestinian refugees displaced from Syria, although the new Constitution has adopted the right to asylum. The group said in a statement addressed to the people of Tunisia that this happens “because Tunisian civil society suffers from weakness in immigration and asylum issues and the media ignores threats faced by the refugees who fled the war in Syria.”

According to the group’s statement, at the beginning of May the Tunisian authorities deported to Lebanon 15 Palestinian refugees from Syria. “They now face the risk of being handed over to the Syrian regime and an unknown fate.” Tunisia has also deported 4 young Syrians to Turkey along with another 4 Palestinian refugees, also fleeing from Syria.

“The situation of refugees who have fled from Syria and come to Tunisia is one of the most outstanding problems,” the group concluded, “given the difficulty of obtaining legal residency.” Civil society in Tunisia, the group members added, is unable to ensure respect for human rights and the dignity of the refugees.