By Louise Lyck Dreehsen, AAU Communication and Public Affairs  

Caption: Abandoned shoes and children’s shoes from the bodies washed ashore on the coast of Zarzis – a testimony to the many migrants who drown in their attempt to reach Europe. Photographer: Ahlam Chemlali

The EU provides billions in support to, among others, Tunisia's and Libya's coast guards and security forces with the aim of curbing migration to Europe. But according to a new PhD thesis from Aalborg University Living and Dying in Transit, the consequence is that migrants live in conditions that threaten their lives and safety.  

The thesis is based on unique and extensive fieldwork in Tunisia where researcher Ahlam Chemlali of the Department of Politics and Society, Aalborg University conducted in-depth interviews with more than 150 migrants and actors, including coast guards, local fishermen, smugglers, workers at burial grounds, forensic pathologists, EU diplomats and local politicians.  

Ahlam Chemlali's research documents how migrants are detained in conditions where many are subjected to sexual assault, violence, racially motivated attacks, arbitrary arrests and detention in camps without access to legal assistance or basic protection.  

"By moving the border further south, the EU is also shifting responsibility – and violence – out of sight," says Ahlam Chemlali, who calls it an 'out of sight, out of mind' policy.  

Tunisia has today overtaken Libya as the primary transit country for migrants in North Africa. 

The EU has supported the Tunisian coast guard and security forces with significant funds, training and equipment, but according to Chemlali's research, this support has not led to improvements in the rights or security of migrants. On the contrary, eyewitness accounts in her research show that many migrants are detained under conditions that are contrary to international human rights standards.  

"The EU calls it border protection and humanitarian cooperation. In reality, it is a strategy that allows European governments to say: 'It's not us'. But it’s European funds that finance the systems where the abuses take place," she says.  

The migration crisis is not solved – just moved  

Ahlam Chemlali's research provides rare insight into how the EU's migration policy is experienced locally. For example, she followed female migrants in Tunisian border areas and shows with eyewitness accounts how the violence not only takes place at sea or at border fences – but also in everyday life. Many migrants live in poverty and are exposed to sexual exploitation and violence, among other harms.  

"This is not just a crisis at the border. It is a crisis in the border countries – in the cities, camps and coastal areas where people live and die in transit," she says.  

2025 marks the 10th year of the migration crisis in Europe. According to Ahlam Chemlali, the EU has not solved the crisis, but instead moved it further away from Europe's own borders.   

Tunisia, which was previously seen as a democratic hope after the Arab Spring, is now marked by increasing authoritarianism.  

"The agreement with Tunisia is presented as a humanitarian effort, but it has the opposite effect: more people drown, more people are subjected to abuse, and more are kept in legal and physical limbo," says Ahlam Chemlali.  

Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication and Public Affairs .