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Tunisia: Protests against employment restrictions due to political views

Banned from working, youths take to the streets

September 25, 2017 at 8:23 pm

Scores of unemployed youths today demonstrated in front of the Tunisian Prime Minister’s office in the capital Tunis to demand employment in public sector jobs.

Participants in the march, from a category known as “the inadmissible for security reasons”, shouted slogans demanding their right to work and raised banners to confirm the legitimacy of their demands.

The group is made up of former students who were opposed to the rule of former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his regime and union activists within the university.

Some 818 people are listed as “inadmissible for security reasons” according to government records.

Read: Tunisia: Left-wing opposition coalition warns of “Constitutional Coup”

“Our move is aimed at implementing the agreement reached with the government last July which dictates the signing of more than 500 contracts in September, the settlement of the files with the Ministry of Social Affairs,” said Hamza Ben Aoun, a member of the group’s negotiations committee.

“The government has not shown a sense of seriousness to abide by its commitments,” he said in a statement to the Anadolu Agency.

Unemployment in Tunisia reached 15.3 per cent during the second quarter of this year, according to official figures.