Tunisia Live (Tunis)
Farah Samti
28 December 2011
The European Union and the International Organization of Immigration signed a cooperation agreement, on December 19th and made public on December 27th. The agreement creates a program managing immigration in order to support the post revolutionary transitions in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
The European Union has allocated 9.9 million Euros to create a fund, financing the program.
The three-year program, starting January 2012, is to support the transitory governments and related non-governmental organizations in addressing immigration issues. The most significant immigration problems in question are illegal immigration, unemployment within immigrants, and the future of immigrants once they return to their countries.
Immigration issues were aggravated due to changing circumstances of the Arab Spring. Since the war in Libya, about 82,000 Tunisians and 200,000 Egyptians returned to their countries. The agreement will help Libyans and other immigrants in Tunisia or Egypt continue benefiting from health care once they are returned to their countries.
The program also aims at strengthening local facilities in order to decrease the pressure caused by the large number of immigrants traveling through.
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