EU EXTERNAL PARTNERS: Egypt to ratify controversial new asylum law ― European Ombudsman finds maladministration by Commission regarding EU-Tunisia deal ― Civil society activists taken into custody in ‘anti-terrorism’ investigation in Tunisia

• Egypt is on the verge of ratifying a controversial new asylum law.
• The European Ombudsman has found maladministration in the European Commission’s handling of documents relating to the EU-Tunisia agreement.
• Several civil society activists who support people on the move have been taken into custody as part of an “anti-terrorism” investigation in Tunisia.

Egypt is on the verge of ratifying a controversial new asylum law. The new bill, which was approved “in principle” by the Egyptian parliament on 17 November, would transfer responsibility from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to an Egyptian government committee. According to Kelly Petillo from the European Council on Foreign Relations, the move has been viewed “quite negatively”. “Rights groups have been seeing it as a removal of ownership away from the UN and rights-based organisations,” she said. In a joint statement issued on 15 November, 22 human rights organisations expressed their “categorical rejection” of the new law. “The bill does not provide real solutions to the basic challenges faced by refugees, but rather increases the complexity of procedures and reduces their access to protection and services,” they wrote, adding that they were “keen on constructive engagement with the proposed Egyptian legislation, despite the Egyptian authorities’ constant disregard for this positive engagement”.

The European Ombudsman has found maladministration in the European Commission’s (EC) handling of documents relating to the EU-Tunisia agreement. The case involved a request by Dutch GreenLeft member of the European Parliament, Tinek Strike, for public access to documents relating to the preparation of a meeting between EC President Ursula von der Leyen, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed that took place in June 2023 prior to the signing of the deal the following month. The EC replied that it could not identify any documents within the scope of the request and, following an appeal by Strik, the matter was eventually referred to the Ombudsman. In a decision that was published on 25 November, European Ombudsman Emma O’Reilly criticised the EC’s efforts to find the relevant documents as “unsatisfactory” and noted that “the preparation of such a high-level meeting (…) would necessarily have required prior exchanges within the Commission, and between the Commission and national authorities in the Member States”. Commenting on the Ombudsman’s decision, Strik X posted: “In line with the commitments by the new Commission to increase the transparency of its external migration policies, I urge [it] to use the response to announce a substantial increase of transparency”.

Several civil society activists who support people on the move have been taken into custody as part of an “anti-terrorism” investigation in Tunisia. According to Romdhane Ben Amor from the NGO the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES), the people who were detained on 16 November, included Abdallah El Saïd and a number of his associates from the NGO the Children of the Moon in Medenine (AELM). La Presse newspaper, which has been described as “close to the Tunisian government”, has reported that AELM was suspected of receiving “foreign funds (…) to assist sub-Saharan migrants to enter illegally onto Tunisian soil”. The Tunisian writer Hatem Nafti told the RFI radio station that El Saïd’s case was, unfortunately, just one of many. “There are other heads of associations who worked with migrants who are also in prison and also experienced similar treatment,” he said, adding: “He is the perfect target for the authorities, it would seem”. However, according to Ben Amor, the involvement of anti-terrorism investigators in El Saïd’s case represents a worrying development in the ongoing repression of civil society activists in Tunisia. “It is the first time authorities have used this against associations specialising in migration issues,” he said, describing the latest incident as part of a “new wave of even tougher repression” against migration activists.

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