Sharjah24 – Reuters: Tunisia's president Kais Saied denounced racism on Sunday and pointed to possible legal consequences for perpetrators 10 days after announcing a crackdown on illegal migration using language the African Union condemned as "racialised hate speech".

During a statement on Feb. 21 telling security forces to expel all illegal immigrants, President Kais Saied called migration a conspiracy to change Tunisia's demographics by making it more African and less Arab.

Police detained hundreds of migrants, landlords summarily evicted hundreds from their homes and hundreds of others were fired from work, rights groups say.

Many migrants said they had been attacked, including being pelted with stones by gangs of youths in their neighbourhoods, and rights groups said police had been slow to respond to such assaults.