Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni is hoping that her planned travel to the North African country, Tunisia will facilitate delayed talks about the loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to a source quoted by Reuters, Meloni will be visiting the North African country on Tuesday after recent travels to neighbours, Algeria and Libya.
There are concerns that the delay with the loan could deepen Tunisia’s financial crisis and escalate migrants’ crisis across the Mediterranean Sea in search of a better life in Europe.
Tunisia and the IMF have been negotiating a $1.9 billion loan for months, with Tunisian President, Kais Saied rejecting key terms of the proposed deal.
A few months ago, Tunisia’s General Labour Union (UGTT) expressed concern about the IMF’s proposed financial bailout. During the May Day celebrations, labour officials criticized what they called an “IMF government,” while protesters chanted “No to colonization.”
Last week, President Saied announced a regime of additional taxes which would be introduced as a stopgap measure ahead of an expected IMF loan.
Tunisia is indebted to the tune of roughly 80% of its GDP and received an agreement in principle from the IMF last year for a new loan of nearly $2 billion to assist it in overcoming its severe financial crisis.
In February, he directed security forces to deport all illegal immigrants, accusing them of plotting to change Tunisia’s demographics so that it became more African and less Arab. The crackdown fuelled an increase in migrant departures to Italy.
According to the latest United Nations data, approximately 26,555 of the 51,215 boat migrants who arrived in Italy by the first week of June this year had set sail from Tunisia, compared to 3,658 in the same period in 2022.