Italy has opened its doors to accept 2,000 Tunisian construction workers following the agreement between the National Association of Building Contractors (Ance), the non-profit training organization Elis, the Tunisian Employment Agency (Aneti), and the Agency for Professional Training (Atfp).
Through a post on X, the EU Embassy in Tunisia announced that, as part of the EU’s “Thamm+” program, the decision focused on providing certified linguistic and technical training to 2,000 Tunisians over three years to place them in Ance member companies, Schengen.News reports.
400 Tunisian Worker Specialized in Building & Public Works Are Expected to Be Hired in Italy This Year.
A new program is set to launch this year and will continue through 2026. Through this initiative, the EU—working in partnership with member states and Tunisia—will implement specific measures to facilitate legal migration as part of a mutually beneficial cooperation framework.
At a signing ceremony, Abdelkader Jemali, Chief of Staff to the Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, announced that 400 young Tunisians with expertise in construction and public works will be recruited in 2024, with an additional 800 to follow in 2025, and the same number again in 2026.
Last year, Italy backed two initiatives aimed at implementing legal labor mobility projects, with total funding of €10.6 million provided by the European Commission and an additional €1.4 million from Italian national funds.
In Egypt, the first initiative led to the establishment of the “Italo-Egyptian Employment Center,” which focuses on providing professional training in the tourism and hospitality sector to prepare workers for employment opportunities in Italy.
In Tunisia and Morocco, a delegation agreement was signed with the International Organization for Migration to support targeted initiatives worth €8.625 million, supplemented by €400,000 in co-financing from the Italian Ministry of the Interior.
In Tunisia, the project—originally proposed by ANCE and the non-profit organization ELIS—continues to train 2,000 construction workers. Meanwhile, in Morocco, a separate initiative backed by the Ministry of Labor is focused on training 500 workers in the field of mechatronics.
