Tunisia frees NGO worker Sherifa Riahi after 20 months

After more than 20 months in detention, Sherifa Riahi has been reunited with her family following her release from prison in Tunisia. The former director of the French NGO Terre d’Asile, along with two colleagues, was freed on Tuesday after a Tunisian court handed down suspended sentences on charges of facilitating the illegal entry and residence of migrants. Riahi said she felt relieved following her release.

Speaking after her freedom, Riahi described the emotional toll of her detention, saying the most difficult part was not the prison conditions, but the isolation and separation from her family. She said the lack of news from the outside world and the fear of not seeing loved ones again made the experience particularly hard.

Riahi also warned of what she described as the criminalisation of humanitarian work in Tunisia. She said her organisation’s sole aim was to assist asylum seekers and migrants in extremely vulnerable situations, while also supporting Tunisia in managing migration, which she described as an existing and unavoidable reality.

Arrested in May 2024, Riahi maintains that she and her colleagues were operating lawfully under a state-approved program. She noted that Terre d’Asile had worked in Tunisia since 2012 in close cooperation with government institutions, including signed agreements and official commendations, making the prosecution difficult for her to understand.

Migration remains a highly sensitive issue in Tunisia, a key transit point for tens of thousands of people attempting to reach Europe each year. President Kais Saied has taken a hard line on the issue. In February 2023, he warned that “hordes of illegal migrants,” many from sub-Saharan Africa, posed a demographic threat, remarks that triggered racially motivated attacks and forced thousands of migrants from their homes and jobs.