As the disturbing scenes in Tunisia show, anti-migrant sentiments have gone global | Nesrine Malik

President Saied is scapegoating his country's small black migrant population to distract from political failings. Does this sound familiar?

A little more than 10 years ago, calls for freedom and human rights in Tunisia triggered the Arab spring. Today, black migrants in the country are being attacked, spat at and evicted from their homes. The country's racism crisis is so severe that hundreds of black migrants have been repatriated.

It all happened quickly, triggered by a speech by the Tunisian president, Kais Saied, at the end of February. He urged security forces to take urgent measures against migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, who he claimed were moving to the country and creating an unnatural" situation as part of a criminal plan designed to change the demographic makeup" and turn Tunisia into just another African country that doesn't belong to the Arab and Islamic nations any more". Hordes of irregular migrants from sub-Saharan Africa" had come to Tunisia, he added, with all the violence, crime and unacceptable practices that entails".