More migrants in Tunisia opted to be sent back to their home countries in recent months according to the International Migration Organization, amid rising anti-migrant sentiment and European pressure to curb migration.

"Between January 1 and June 25, 2024, IOM facilitated the voluntary return of around 3,500 people from Tunisia to their country of origin," a spokesperson for the organisation told AFP on Wednesday.

The IOM's "voluntary humanitarian return programme", which provides free return flights to migrants and help reintegrating into their home countries, saw a 200 percent increase in sign-ups compared to the same period in 2023.

The migrants, who ventured to Tunisia in the hopes of crossing to Europe, are primarily returning to The Gambia, Burkina Faso and Guinea. 

Rights groups have criticised the programme, saying the returns are not truly voluntary if migrants are being pressured into leaving. 

Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesperson for the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), said the returns take place as a result of "anti-migrant policy, which sees them as a threat". 

People are made precarious, he said, "by preventing them from working, renting apartments or using public transport."

Anti-migrant violence broke out last year after President Kais Saied gave a speech saying "hordes of illegal migrants" posed a demographic threat to Tunisia. 

Hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans were subsequently kicked out of their jobs and homes.

Their living conditions worsened as they were chased out of cities such as Sfax and were forced to create makeshift settlements in less populated areas, where they waited to cross the Mediterranean.

Tunisia and the EU last summer reached a "strategic partnership" through which Tunis received financial aid worth 105 million euros ($112 million) in return for efforts to deter migrant departures.

Ben Amor said the hike in "voluntary" repatriations is a direct result of the EU's policy of countering irregular migration.

"The EU has given all the financial, logistical and technical means" to Tunisia to implement the policy, he said.

Tunisia and neighbouring Libya are major departure points for migrants attempting perilous sea crossings to Europe.

According to the Tunisian Interior Ministry, around 23,000 irregular migrants are currently present in the country.

More than 1,300 people died or disappeared last year in shipwrecks off the North African country, according to FTDES.