Tunisian authorities must drop charges against six staff members of the Tunisian branch of the French NGO, France Terre d’Asile, who are facing a bogus criminal trial for their humanitarian work with refugees and migrants, and cease the relentless criminalization of civil society, Amnesty International said ahead of the opening of their trial on 15 December.
Three of the Terre d’Asile Tunisie staff – including Sherifa Riahi and Mohamed Joo – have been arbitrarily held in pretrial detention for over 19 months, along with local municipality staff who collaborated with them.
“The recent verdict against the Tunisian Council for Refugees staff confirms the criminalization of support for refugees and asylum seekers, coming after Tunisian authorities put an end to access to asylum in the country. It sends a chilling message to humanitarian workers and civil society organizations, who are often helping to fulfil states’ international obligations with regards to refugees’ and migrants’ rights as well as social and economic rights for the wider population,” said Sara Hashash, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
“We call on the Tunisian authorities to respect their obligations under international human rights law, put an end to this injustice and ensure the release of NGO staff and those held arbitrarily with them from the municipality. They are being prosecuted simply for their legitimate work providing vital assistance and protection to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in precarious situations.”
We call on the Tunisian authorities to respect their obligations under international human rights law, put an end to this injustice and ensure the release of NGO staff and those held arbitrarily with them from the municipality.
Sara Hashash, Deputy Regional Director for MENA
The NGO staff face trial alongside 17 former municipality officials and employees accused of collaborating with the organization. It follows the sentencing to two years in prison on 24 November of two staff members from humanitarian NGO the Tunisian Council for Refugees (CTR), amid a deepening crackdown on civil society organizations that has contributed to the complete dismantling of protections for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in the country.
Bogus charges against humanitarian workers
On 15 December, 23 NGO staff and local municipality officials who collaborated with them will face trial before the Tunis Court of First Instance. Three of the Terre d’Asile Tunisie staff, human rights defenders and NGO workers – former director Sherifa Riahi, financial and administrative director Mohamed Joo, along with the current director — have been held in arbitrary pretrial detention since their arrest in May 2024, in addition to Imen Ouardani, former deputy mayor of the eastern city of Sousse, and another former local official solely for having allowed the NGO to use a municipality building for their activities.
The group are being prosecuted for their humanitarian work assisting refugees, asylum seekers and migrants with overbroad charges, including “sheltering individuals illegally entering or leaving the territory” and “facilitating the irregular entry, exit, movement or stay of a foreigner.”
Terre d’Asile Tunisie was properly registered under Tunisian law and operated transparently in direct cooperation with local and national Tunisian authorities. The prosecution not only violates their right to freedom of association but also criminalizes collaboration between civil society and local authorities, in direct contravention of Tunisia’s obligations under international law towards refugees, asylum seekers and migrants and towards human rights defenders, by actively hampering protection and assistance work.
Providing humanitarian and human rights support to migrants, irrespective of their legal status, is protected by the right to freedom of association under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and must not be equated with human smuggling or trafficking, in line with the United Nations (UN) Convention on Transnational Organized Crime ratified by Tunisia. States also have an obligation to create a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders in which they can work without fear of reprisals.
Escalating crackdown on civil society
The trial follows the alarming conviction on 24 November of staff from the CTR, an NGO that worked with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to provide essential assistance. The Tunis Court of First Instance sentenced the CTR founder and project manager Mustapha Djemali and Abderrazek Krimi to two years in prison, while suspending the remainder of their sentence after taking into account the 18 months in pre-trial detention already served. They were released as a result.
Since May 2024, Tunisian authorities have been escalating their crackdown on civil society organizations, particularly those working on migration. This campaign has included arbitrary arrests, detentions, asset freezes, bank restrictions, and court-ordered suspensions, which have impacted over 15 organizations in the last two months.
According to a statement shared by the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LTDH) on 8 December 2025, the Tunisian authorities have on at least four occasions in the past month refused access to the organization to visit prisons, despite a memorandum signed in 2015 between the League and the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry refuted wanting to put an end to the memorandum.
Other organizations targeted with criminal investigations and arbitrary detentions include the anti-racism NGO Mnemty and the children’s rights NGO Children of the Moon of Medenine, whose presidents have been in detention since May and November 2024 respectively. Authorities have also held the executive director of the Association for the Promotion of the Right to Difference (ADD), Salwa Ghrissa, in arbitrary pretrial detention since 12 December 2024.
In June 2024, Tunisian authorities ordered the suspension of registration and refugee status determination (RSD) activities by the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, effectively removing the only avenue for seeking asylum in the country.
The crackdown on civil society organizations and the suspension of UNHCR activities have severely affected access to protection and vital services such as emergency shelter, healthcare, child protection, assistance for victims of gender-based violence, and legal aid. It has left potentially thousands of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, including unaccompanied children, at greater risk of human rights violations and abuse.
“The relentless targeting of NGOs, notably those protecting vulnerable refugees and migrants, reveals a deeply worrying state strategy to dismantle the foundations of Tunisia’s civic space,” said Anne Savinel-Barras, president of Amnesty International France.
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