[LI] The North African country of Tunisia is turning into a "springboard" for illegal immigrants trying to get to Europe, according to the German newspaper Die Welt. The Muslim-majority country, destabilized in the wake of the "Arab Spring", was becoming a serious security threat to Europe since the Tunisian government was encouraging its Islamized or otherwise troublesome young men to emigrate to Europe.Italy, with islands just 70 miles off the coast of Tunisia, is the preferred destination for Tunisians and North African migrants trying to get to Europe. Last year, more than 160,000 migrants landed on Italy’s southernmost Island of Lampedusa alone. In May 2017, German media reports cited leaked government documents claiming that as many as 6.6 million people were waiting in North African countries ‐ such as Tunisia, Libya, and Morocco ‐ to cross into Europe.
In the 1990s, many Tunisians fought in Jihadist campaign overseas. The vacuum created by the fall of the country’s long-time dictator Ben Ali in 2011 has been filled by various Islamic terrorist outfits, including Al Qaeda and Islamic State. German newspaper Die Welt reported the developing situation in Tunisia: