According to Lighthouse, the team established that the EU is well aware of the dump operations and sometimes directly involved. Two senior EU sources said it was “impossible” to fully account for the way in which European funding was used. The internal documents obtained by Lighthouse show that EU officials had held internal discussions on some of the abusive practices since at least 2019. Lighthouse estimates that tens of thousands of refugees and migrants are being rounded up across North Africa and dumped in the desert and remote areas. In April 2024, the European Ombudsman decided to continue her inquiry into the EU – Tunisia migration agreement and will likely ask for the same documents that Lighthouse already has disclosed.

Source: The North Africa Journal May 21, 2024 10:14 UTC