Despite Tunisia’s long history of emigration and more recent role as a country of transit and destination in the North African region, migration-related statistics and data remain scarce and fragmented, hindering the ability of policy-makers and humanitarian stakeholders to plan effectively. This has been particularly evident starting from the second half of 2017, when Tunisia experienced its second-highest upsurge of irregular migration to Europe since the 2011 revolution lifting Tunisians the first ranking nationality in sea arrivals to Italy in 2018. On the other hand, these dynamics reflected against the deterioration of the political and security conditions in neighbouring countries – notably in Libya. These developments have resulted in an increase of sub-Saharan African migrants crossing to Tunisia and creating it a country of both destination and transit.

In response to the rapidly changing migratory dynamics in the region, IMPACT, through its humanitarian data initiative REACH, has been operational in Tunisia since 2018. IMPACT works to provide development and humanitarian stakeholders with in-depth and actionable data on, for example, recent mobility patterns, migratory profiles and protection risks.