Five employees of the Tunisian Council for Refugees will go on trial on November 24, 2025, amid a broader crackdown on civil society groups in Tunisia, Human Rights Watch said today. The Tunisian authorities should drop the unfounded charges, release two detained employees, and stop criminalizing the legitimate work of independent groups.
Tunisian authorities shut down the council, froze its bank accounts, and are prosecuting six of its employees for their work assisting asylum seekers and refugees as a partner of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The six include the founder and director, Mustapha Djemali, and project manager, Abderrazek Krimi. They face up to 23 years in prison if convicted of the unfounded charges of facilitating the irregular entry and stay of foreign nationals in Tunisia. One of the employees is not yet on trial, pending proceedings before the Cassation Court.
"The Tunisian Council for Refugees carried out essential protection work in support of refugees and asylum seekers, operating legally with international organizations accredited in Tunisia," said Bassam Khawaja, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Targeting an organization with abusive legal action criminalizes crucial assistance work and leaves asylum seekers without the support they desperately need."
The trial, before the Tunis Court of First Instance, is the first against a civil society group since the arrests of several nongovernmental organization workers between May and December 2024. It comes amid an unprecedented crackdown on civic space in Tunisia.
The Tunisian Council for Refugees, formed in 2016, provided initial screening of asylum applications for UNHCR. It also provided emergency accommodation and medical assistance for refugees and asylum seekers.
On May 2, 2024, the council published a public tender for Tunisian hotels for these services, causing a backlash on social media and among members of parliament amid an anti-migrant crackdown. The next day, the police searched the council's headquarters in Tunis, shut down the organization, and arrested Djemali. On May 4, they arrested Krimi. The two have been in pretrial detention since.
On May 7, 2024, a court spokesperson said the public prosecutor's office had accused the heads of an unnamed organization of "forming a criminal association with the aim of helping people to enter Tunisia" illegally. The accusation is linked to a "call for tenders to Tunisian hotel establishments for the accommodation of African migrants," which was published "without coordination with the security and administrative authorities."
That same day, an investigative judge ordered Djemali and Krimi detained pending investigation under articles 38, 39, and 41 of Law No. 40 of 1975 for having "provided information, planned, facilitated or assisted … the illegal entry or exit of a person from the Tunisian territory," "harbored persons entering or leaving Tunisian territory illegally," and "participation in an organization or entente" to commit these offenses. Between May and June 2024, the authorities also froze the council's and Djemali's and Krimi's bank accounts.
On April 30, 2025, the investigative judge formally charged the six employees under the 1975 law. On June 3, the Indictment Chamber expanded the charges to include article 42 of the law, which alone carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
Human Rights Watch reviewed the judge's closing order and found the charges to be based soley on the legitimate work of the council, which operated legally in Tunisia and was almost exclusively funded by UNHCR.
Even though the council's beneficiaries were asylum seekers and refugees registered by UNHCR in Tunisia, the investigative judge found the organization's activities to constitute supporting migrants without regular status "to ensure their settlement in the country." The closing order refers to activities such as providing accommodation and cash assistance to refugees and asylum seekers, which are standard UNHCR activities in many countries and often carried out via implementing partners.
Djemali, an 81-year-old Swiss-Tunisian national, was heard only once by the investigative judge during pretrial detention. He has Horton's disease, an inflammation of the arteries, and since September 2024 prison authorities have not provided him with adequate medication despite several requests, his family said. The judge denied six requests for provisional release during his detention, they said.
The abusive prosecutions and shutdown of the Tunisian Council for Refugees is part of a broader crackdown on civil society in Tunisia, Human Rights Watch said. Between May and December 2024, security forces also arrested at least six other workers at nongovernmental organizations in connection with their work combatting discrimination or assisting refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants. They include Saadia Mosbah, a prominent human rights defender and president of the anti-racism association Mnemty (My Dream); Abdellah Saïd, president of Les Enfants de la Lune (Children of the Moon); Saloua Ghrissa, president of the Association for the Promotion of the Right to Difference; and three current and former employees of the organization Terre d'Asile Tunisie (Tunisia, Land of Asylum). All have been in pretrial detention since.
The authorities have virtually ended assistance and protection for refugees and asylum seekers in Tunisia. In addition to targeting and shutting down organizations providing support, in June 2024 the authorities instructed UNHCR to suspend its processing of asylum applications under the pretext that Tunisia is seeking to establish a national asylum system. The country still lacks a national legal framework for asylum. As a result, asylum seekers have been left in legal limbo without access to international protection, exposing them to risks of arbitrary arrest and expulsion.
Tunisian authorities have also targeted several other civil society organizations with financial or criminal investigations, increased administrative and financial oversight, arbitrary banking restrictions, and temporary suspensions. Since July, at least 15 associations registered in Tunisia have received a court-ordered suspension, some without proper notice.
Tunisia is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, which guarantee the rights to freedom of association, to not be subject to arbitrary arrest or detention, and to a fair trial.
The African charter also protects the right to seek and obtain asylum from persecution, and Tunisia's 2014 Constitution guarantees the right to political asylum. Tunisia is party to both the 1951 UN and 1969 Organization of African Unity refugee conventions, which protect the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. It includes a prohibition on penalizing people for irregular entry or stays if they promptly present themselves to authorities, as well as the absolute prohibition on refoulement-that is, the return to a place where they are at risk of persecution.
"Instead of criminalizing associations' work and imprisoning human rights defenders under spurious pretexts, Tunisian authorities should be working hand in hand with civil society for the benefit of all those in the country," Khawaja said. "The broad crackdown on civil society harms not only those employed by the targeted organizations but also the many who benefit from their work."
