The Netherlands sees no taboo in migrant agreements with “dictatorial” Tunisia

The Netherlands seems to be pushing for the EU to conclude migration agreements with Tunisia as soon as possible, like the agreement with Turkey in 2016. “Mastering migration”. And fast too: “Tempo, tempo, tempo.” State Secretary for Asylum and Migration, Eric van der Burg (VVD), did not hesitate to do so in Rome. The Secretary of State believes that talks with Tunisia should take place “in the very short term”, and is turning first to the European Commission and Italy for this. Van der Burg was in Italy on Wednesday, where he discussed the migration crisis in Europe with Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi (independent, close to the Lega party).

“Tunisia is, after all, the gateway to Italy, and therefore also to Europe,” said the Secretary of State. During the conversation with his Italian colleague, the word “Tunisian agreement” has not yet been mentioned, by analogy with the agreement that Europe concluded with Turkey in 2016. But it should be clear that such negotiations with Tunisia should focus on the “limitation of entries”. In short: Tunis must be convinced that it must stop migrants who want to go to Europe.

Step by step we have to come to an agreement

The North African country, briefly hopeful of the Arab Spring in 2011, is sliding at an accelerated pace towards autocracy. President Kais Saied is granting himself more and more powers. Opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi was arrested this week. Regarding sub-Saharan migrants, Saied advances the “population theory” and says there is a plan to change Tunisia’s demographic composition – it is also a popular conspiracy theory among the far right in Europe. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has made similar statements in the recent past.

Should Europe even try to make deals with an autocrat like Saied? A “complicated point”, according to Van der Burg, since the countries on the other side of the Mediterranean “do not have the same standards and values ​​as we in Europe”. But, he adds, “that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t see if it’s possible.”

The migration debate is heating up, both in the Netherlands and in Italy, where migration dominates the political agenda. Van der Burg admits “he has his hands more than full” with the reception crisis. He comes up against municipalities that welcome women and children, but prefer not to welcome men. The Secretary of State must now count on the voluntary cooperation of the municipalities, but “this will soon change with the distribution law”.

The Italian government also faces a major migration challenge. Already 27,500 boat people have reached the southern shores of Europe in the first three months of this year, compared to 16,000 in the same period last year. And during the summer months, the number of boat people will only increase.

bad covenant

Van der Burg and Piantedosi’s migration consultations build on the very cordial meeting Prime Minister Mark Rutte had in Rome last month with his hard-right Italian colleague Giorgia Meloni (Brothers of Italy). This creates an inappropriate alliance between the Netherlands and Italy, and between North and South. While The Hague and Rome had more than once different views, certainly when it comes to finance, cooperation on migration is certainly not an obvious choice.

“Dublin” is already a major bottleneck. As a northern member state, the Netherlands is pushing for a reform of the Dublin rules, but wants to stick to the regulation itself, which requires asylum seekers to generally submit an asylum application in the first country where they enter the Schengen area. But Italy, which is on the outer border of Europe, wants to recast “Dublin”. According to Van der Burg, it is important that new Dublin agreements are concluded, “integrated into a new European pact on migration”.