Swi Swissinfo.ch has just drawn up a critical assessment of the migration partnership between Switzerland and Tunisia, initiated in 2011 to regulate migratory flows and promote the training of young professionals. Despite initial acclamations, the agreement is now aroused deep questions about its effective effectiveness and its real impact.
This is what Swi Swissinfo.ch has just portrayed in an analysis published today, Friday, April 5. Indeed, in 2011, Switzerland and Tunisia signaled an understanding protocol aimed at regulating migratory flows between the two countries and training young professionals. This partnership was welcomed at the time as a “win-win” situation, the same source announces.
The initial objective was twofold: regulate the migratory flow of Tunisians to Switzerland while offering professional training opportunities for young people from the two countries.
Switzerland has agreed to exchange young professionals with short -term visas in exchange for Tunisia reintegration of rejected asylum seekers. Between 2014 and 2023, Tunisia has read 451 people in agreement with Switzerland, while 402 others voluntarily returned to their country of origin according to figures provided by the State Secretariat for Swiss Migration (SEM), reports Swissinfo.
However, this reintegration policy is far from unanimous. Some activists for migration consider it as a “legal description of what is in fact a forced deportation”.
The other part of the partnership, the training of young professionals, also struggles to achieve its objectives. If the agreement provides that up to 150 young professionals from each country can benefit from the program, each year, only 174 Tunisians participated in training programs in Switzerland between 2015 and 2023, and only one person in Switzerland benefited from similar programs in Tunisia.
By September 2026, the total number of young professionals registered on the program will be 200, of which 150 will be reinstated in the Tunisian labor market.
Despite the criticisms issued as to the reintegration agreements and the small number of beneficiaries of the exchange programs for young professionals, the SEM wanted to emphasize that “the migration partnership with Tunisia has been working very well since 2012”, thus confirming its continuous support for this agreement, “concludes Swissinfo.ch.
