Founder of the Children of the Moon association, an organization which helps migrants in Medenine, in the south of the country, Abdallah El Saïd was arrested and transferred to the anti-terrorism center this week in Tunisia. The general secretary and treasurer of the NGO were also arrested.
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Known for his action in the south of TunisiaAbdallah El Saïd, the leader of an association helping migrants, was arrested and then transferred to the anti-terrorism unit this week, the spokesperson for the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights told AFP this Saturday, November 16 (FTDES). According to Romdhane Ben Amor, the transfer of the investigation to the anti-terrorism center is “ a dangerous signal, because it is the first time that the authorities have used it for associations specializing in the migration issue “.
Founder of the Children of the Moon, in Medenine, Abdallah El Saïd, a Tunisian of Chadian origin, was arrested on November 12 in the company of the general secretary and the treasurer of his association, added Mr. Ben Amor. Two agents from a bank which hosted the NGO’s accounts are also in police custody. Close to power, the newspaper The Press indicates that ” five activists operating on behalf of an association in Médenine were placed in police custody in order to be brought before the judicial counter-terrorism unit […]. Between 2019 and 2023, this association would have received funds from abroad to help sub-Saharan migrants enter Tunisian soil illegally. », continues the daily newspaper.
“ For months, he had been receiving visits from the authorities and the police »
According to the essayist Hatem Nafti, also author of the work Our Friend Kaïs Saïed which has just been published by Riveneuve, Abdallah El Saïd knew he was threatened. “ For months, he had been receiving visits from the authorities and the police. Other leaders of migrant aid associations who are now in prison have also been arrested in fairly similar conditions, entrusts this one to RFI. As they have been incarcerated for months without having been tried, the investigation of their case takes a very long time and the justice system is no longer independent at all. [en Tunisie]I’m not very optimistic for him. He is an ideal scapegoat for the authorities. »
According to essayist Hatem Nafti, Abdallah El Saïd knew he was threatened and is an “ideal scapegoat for the authorities”
Made up of several NGOs, a monitoring committee to fight against the criminalization of solidarity policies launched an appeal to support Abdallah El Said, estimating that “ his only crime was to show solidarity with migrant and refugee children in the Medenine region “. Romdhane Ben Amor denounces him “ a new, harsher wave of repression » migrant aid activists, after a first series of arrests last May targeting at least three organizations: the Mmemty association, of anti-racist activist Saadia Mosbah, as well as Terre d’Asile and the Tunisian Council for refugees.
It is “ a message to all those working in solidarity with migrants “, he believes.
In February 2023, Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed denounced, in a speech, the arrival in the country of “ hordes of illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa » as part of a “ criminal plan to change demographic composition » of the country. Tunisia, whose coasts are in some places less than 150 km from Italy, is one of the main departure points in North Africa for sub-Saharan migrants, who attempt the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean every year.
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