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EU Voices Concerns over Migration Deal with Tunisia

European Commission chief Ursula Von der Leyen shakes hands with Tunisian President Kais Saied after announcing a strategic deal with Tunis on economic development and irregular migration - AFP
European Commission chief Ursula Von der Leyen shakes hands with Tunisian President Kais Saied after announcing a strategic deal with Tunis on economic development and irregular migration - AFP
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EU Voices Concerns over Migration Deal with Tunisia

European Commission chief Ursula Von der Leyen shakes hands with Tunisian President Kais Saied after announcing a strategic deal with Tunis on economic development and irregular migration - AFP
European Commission chief Ursula Von der Leyen shakes hands with Tunisian President Kais Saied after announcing a strategic deal with Tunis on economic development and irregular migration - AFP

The European Union's Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, on Friday expressed concerns about a migration deal inked last July between the European Commission and Tunisia, saying the Commission should explain how the pact will not breach human rights standards.

“Did the Commission carry out a human rights impact assessment of the MoU before its conclusion and consider possible measures to mitigate risks of human rights violations?” asked O’Reilly who opened a rights probe into the agreement.

In the letter published on Friday, sent to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, the Ombudsman said the EU executive needs to conduct a human rights assessment before signing deals with foreign countries.

“Does the Commission intend to carry out a periodic, systematic and effective HRIA [human rights impact assessment] of actions undertaken in the course of the implementation of the MoU?” O’Reilly wrote in the letter.

The Ombudsman is an independent overseer employed to handle complaints about the work of EU institutions and agencies and to investigate alleged administrative failures.

O’Reilly asked how the EU intends to safeguard rights in the migrant agreement signed over the summer with Tunisia's government.

She also asked whether the Commission has defined criteria for suspending funding if human rights are not respected.

O’Reilly has asked the Commission to reply by 13 December 2023. She said “where fundamental rights are not respected, there cannot be good administration.”

Last July, the European Union and Tunisia signed a memorandum of understanding for a “strategic and comprehensive partnership” on irregular migration, economic development and renewable energy. The deal was inked in the presence of von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte.

But international human rights organisations and MEPs from the left have criticised Brussels for forming an anti-migration partnership with President Kais Saied’s increasingly authoritarian regime.

O’Reilly’s letter also comes a day after Tunisia denied entry to a five-member delegation of the European Parliament and further increases scrutiny over the contentious deal.

Tunisia lies about 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the Italian island of Lampedusa, and has long been a departure point for migrants risking perilous sea journeys on makeshift boats in hopes of reaching Europe.

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Blinken Demands Overhaul of Israeli Conduct in West Bank after Killing of US Protester

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference with Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy (not pictured) as part of a strategic dialogue at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London, Britain, 10 September 2024. (EPA)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference with Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy (not pictured) as part of a strategic dialogue at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London, Britain, 10 September 2024. (EPA)
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Blinken Demands Overhaul of Israeli Conduct in West Bank after Killing of US Protester

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference with Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy (not pictured) as part of a strategic dialogue at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London, Britain, 10 September 2024. (EPA)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference with Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy (not pictured) as part of a strategic dialogue at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London, Britain, 10 September 2024. (EPA)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday demanded an overhaul of Israeli military conduct in the occupied West Bank as he decried the fatal shooting of an American protester against settlement expansion, which Israel said was accidental.

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, who is also a Turkish national, was shot dead last Friday at a protest march in Beita, a village near Nablus where Palestinians have been repeatedly attacked by far-right Jewish settlers.

Israel's military said on Tuesday that its initial inquiry found it was highly likely its troops had fired the shot that killed her but that her death was unintentional, and it voiced deep regret.

In his strongest comments to date criticizing the security forces of Washington's closest Middle East ally, Blinken described Eygi's killing as "unprovoked and unjustified". He said Washington would insist to the Israeli government that it makes changes to how its forces operate in the West Bank.

"No one should be shot and killed for attending a protest. No one should have to put their life at risk just for freely expressing their views," he told reporters in London.

"In our judgment, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement.

"Now we have the second American citizen killed at the hands of Israeli security forces. It's not acceptable," he said.

An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment on Blinken's remarks.

The Israeli military said an investigation by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division was under way and its findings would be submitted for higher-level review once completed.

"We're going to be watching that very, very closely," White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters, saying a criminal probe was an unusual step by Israel's military.

"We're going to want to see where it goes now in terms of the criminal investigation and what they find, and if and how anyone is held accountable," Kirby added.

Eygi's family called the preliminary inquiry "wholly inadequate" and urged US President Joe Biden to demand an independent investigation.

PRELIMINARY INQUIRY

In a statement, the Israeli military said its commanders had conducted an initial investigation into the incident and found that the gunfire was not aimed at her but another individual it called "the key instigator of the riot."

"The incident took place during a violent riot in which dozens of Palestinian suspects burned tires and hurled rocks towards security forces at the Beita Junction," it said.

Israel has sent a request to Palestinian authorities to carry out an autopsy, it said.

"We are deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing by a trained sniper was in any way unintentional," Eygi's family said in a statement.

A surge in violent settler assaults on Palestinians in the West Bank has stirred anger among Western allies of Israel, including the United States, which has imposed sanctions on some Israelis involved in the hardline settler movement. Tensions have been heightened amid Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

Palestinians have held weekly protests in Beita since 2020 over the expansion of nearby Evyatar, a settler outpost. Ultra-nationalist members of Israel's ruling coalition have acted to legalize previously unauthorized outposts like Evyatar, a move Washington says threatens the stability of the West Bank and undercuts efforts toward a two-state solution to the conflict.

Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, an area Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state.

Israel has built a thickening array of settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes that assertion, citing historical and biblical ties to the territory.