A new group of 290 Ivorians was repatriated on Thursday from Tunisia, on board a jumbo jet chartered to the Ethiopian company.
This was declared by the Ivorian ambassador in Tunis, Ibrahim Sy Savané who said that 266 adults and 21 babies were repatriated to Abidjan.
Mr. Savané added that the total number of returnees has risen to 1,053, noting that 2,896 Ivorians have registered with the embassy to be repatriated.
The repatriation is a reaction to Tunisian President Kais Saied’s speech on illegal immigration, a speech that has made many sub-Saharan migrants feel insecure.
Thanks to visa-free entry, the Ivorian community is the largest in sub-Saharan Africa in Tunisia, with an estimated 7,000 people.
After the Tunisian president’s speech on 21 February, when he said that illegal immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa were a source of “violence and crime”, the Ivorian community is the largest in Tunisia.