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 TUNIS, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Building holding camps in North Africa to stop the flood of Africans trying to enter Europe illegally is an ill-timed, unworkable idea that only shifts the problem to another region, a senior Tunisian official said.
"The idea of reception centres or gateways and such like is kind of shifting the problem from the north of the Mediterranean to the south," Interior Ministry General Manager Tahar Fellous Refat told Reuters in a recent interview.
Tunisia is one of the transit points for sub-Saharan Africans seeking a better life in the European Union. Many die each year trying to reach Europe in inadequate boats.
Italy, one of the EU countries nearest Africa, and Germany are pushing a proposal to set up centres outside EU borders, where illegal migrants could be held before being sent home.
Human rights groups have attacked the proposal. Anti-immigration sentiment has risen in Europe over the past few years and many governments are under pressure to devise ways to curb illegal migration.
Refat, in a rare comment by a Tunisian official, said the proposal was "not well-timed and unrealistic."
"Such an idea poses huge problems of state sovereignty and legality as well as management, logistics and organisation," he said. Instead, Refat urged the EU to look at the immigration issue as a "new phenomenon" in the long trail of population movements across the region, not a frightening "scourge".
"We have to pursue our fierce battle to wipe out the networks of migrant smugglers and stem the flow of illegal migrants, but we must see illegal migrants as victims," he said.
Tunisia bought six German navy patrol boats early this month as part of its drive to staunch the flow of migrants and defeat the gangs smuggling them into Europe.
BETTER LIVING CONDITIONS
Tunisia says improving economic and social conditions in Africa will help persuade people to stay at home rather than risk death to enter Europe illegally.
"Tunisia's efforts to fight illegal migration are not centred on police activity alone. Tunisia has a comprehensive programme focusing on cutting unemployment and spurring economic growth," Refat said.
Tunisia arrested 45,000 illegal migrants between 1998 and 2004 and stopped them from entering Italy and the rest of Europe. It also thwarted over 6,000 attempts at smuggling illegal migrants to Europe in the same period.
Refat said economic growth averaging five percent over the past decade had cut Tunisia's poverty rate to under four percent, brought electricity to more than 94 percent of people in rural areas and given them more incentives to stay at home.
He suggested Tunisia would not accept non-Tunisian refugees expelled from the EU, unlike its neighbour Libya.
"We don't want to be victims twice, first when illegal migrants use our country clandestinely as a springboard to Europe and again when they are deported back home through our country," Refat said.
Italy recently flew some 1,000 illegal Egyptian immigrants to Libya, with which it has a repatriation agreement. Tripoli has since expelled them to Egypt.
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