The United Arab Emirates has information that Tunisian women or women traveling on Tunisian passports might commit “terrorist acts” in the Gulf country, Tunisia’s state news agency TAP said.
Tunisia late on Sunday suspended flights from Dubai carrier Emirates to Tunis, with officials saying the airline was refusing to carry female Tunisian travelers.
Emirates has given no reason for not allowing female Tunisians to board its flights since Friday.
The United Arab Emirates said Sunday that "security information" had caused the delays.
"We contacted our Tunisian brothers about security information that necessitated taking specific procedures," UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Twitter.
"We should avoid misleading attempts... We highly value Tunisian women and respect them," he said, without elaborating.
A spokesman for Tunisia’s presidency did not elaborate on the security threat in a brief TAP article.
Tunisian women stage a protest near the United Arab Emirates' embassy in Tunis, Tunisia, Monday December 25, 2017. Source: AAP
Emirates had stopped its Dubai-Tunis connection on Monday.
In Tunisia, anger has been building after women said they had been banned at Tunis airport from boarding Emirates flights to Dubai.
Tunisian civil organizations and political parties called on the government to respond. Foreign Minister Khemais Jhianoui told a local radio station the UAE should apologize for the travel ban, which he said its authorities had not informed Tunisia about.
Tunisia responds angrily to decision
A number of Tunisian women had said their travel to the Gulf state on UAE airlines had been delayed and some had been forced to undergo additional examination of their visas.
That triggered angry reactions on social media and media outlets in Tunisia.
The Tunisian government said Friday it had asked the UAE ambassador for clarification, adding the envoy said the decision was for only a short period and the restrictions had been lifted.
Tunisian rights groups issued a statement on Saturday condemning the UAE measures as "discriminatory and racist".
Tunisia has been trying to repair diplomatic ties with the UAE damaged by its 2011 revolution and after the Islamic party Al-Nahda, which has strong links with Qatar, came to power in the North African country.
Relations between Qatar on the one hand and Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt on the other have been severed since June after the four Arab countries accused Doha of backing "terror" groups in the region, a charge denied by Qatar.
- With AFP
