Migration, negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Tunisia's foreign debt were the key issues on the agenda at a meeting held today, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, at Carthage Palace, between the President of the Republic, Kais Saïed, and the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is on a friendly working visit to Tunisia at the invitation of the Head of State.

President Saïed took advantage of the meeting to review the strong and solid relations of friendship and cooperation between Tunisia and Italy, according to a press release by the Presidency of the Republic.

The meeting also provided an opportunity to discuss several important issues, including in particular the issue of irregular migration.

On this subject, the Head of State told Meloni that Tunisia "bears an enormous burden and faces many challenges, in the sense that it is no longer just a transit point for migrants but also and above all a destination for many of them who settle there illegally."

The Head of State added that "groups of them have set up illegal public schools and nurseries, thereby violating the country's existing legislation, something we can no longer accept".

"It is the State that has the prerogative to legislate, and it is also the State that oversees its implementation, and this legislation applies to everyone without exception", said President Saïed.

The Head of State told the Italian official and the delegation accompanying her that this phenomenon, which continues to grow and gain ground day by day, can only be tackled collectively. He also called for a "joint solution within the framework of a Summit to which the countries concerned in the southern Mediterranean, the Sub-Saharan region and the northern Mediterranean will be invited".

President Kais Saied noted in this respect that "all roads no longer lead to Rome alone, but also to Tunisia", which in itself constitutes "an abnormal phenomenon both for Tunisia and for the countries to which these immigrants flock".

The Head of State also warned against the existence of criminal networks that traffic people and organs, whether in African countries or in countries on the northern shores of the Mediterranean, calling for concerted action to deal with these organizations that prey on migrants lost at sea and in the shifting sands of the deserts before they reach the areas where they want to settle.

Regarding the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Head of State unequivocally reiterated his "categorical rejection of all forms of diktats", pointing out that those who rush to offer "ready-made" formulas are very much like a doctor who prescribes a drug before he can identify the nature of the pathology.

An approach that is at best false, at worst deleterious, and that will bring neither happiness nor a cure to the patient. On the contrary," the Head of State continued, "it will complicate matters and will inevitably be a source of social instability in Tunisia, and could even have enormous repercussions that will spare no one in the region.

The President of the Republic also discussed with the Italian Prime Minister the issue of cancelling Tunisia's foreign debt, which is undermining the State's budget balance, and ways of activating the mechanism for converting debt into development projects, pointing out that large sums of these debts have been embezzled, according to the testimonies of a number of international institutions.