Tunis, April 26 — A Small Cabinet Meeting, chaired on Saturday by Prime Minister Sarra Zaafrani Zenzri, approved a set of measures for the benefit of Tunisians living abroad on the occasion of their return to their homeland during the summer 2026, focusing on the state's support, under its social role, for low-income families.
The Cabinet, according to a Prime Ministry press release on Sunday, called the national carrier Tunisair to dedicate a large number of seats in both directions (country of residence-Tunisia and Tunisia-country of residence) at an exceptional differential fare, offer a large number of seats at a reduced fare, and grant privileges regarding luggage and exemption from additional fees when changing or cancelling bookings, reduce service fees, and extend the travel period until September 2026.
The Prime Ministry called on the Tunisian Shipping Company to apply exceptional discounts on tickets covering individuals and vehicles in both directions (Tunisia-Europe and Europe-Tunisia), apply a reduced fare on the Marseille and Genoa lines, and allocate a large number of places, distributed across several voyages, for families comprising four members, including two children, and one standard vehicle, and to apply several differential fares on ticket prices during the peak season taking into account the number of family members, the option of paying in instalments.
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Tunisair was invited to promote offers for the Tunisian community abroad through early purchase options, and to provide special offers for students at differential prices available for sale throughout the year, whilst granting them other privileges tailored to their means.
The Tunisian Shipping Company was also called upon to apply differential fares for the benefit of Tunisians abroad, similar to the early booking fares (Amitié and SPOT) and other family fares (Famille) comprising 3 to 7 members, as well as Corail and Bienvenue fares, in addition to requesting both national air and sea carriers to take all necessary measures to ensure their full readiness to properly secure the return of Tunisians residing abroad under the best conditions, and to guarantee quality of reception, support and guidance.
All diplomatic missions were invited to conduct promotional campaigns for the benefit of Tunisians residing abroad in order to inform them of new savings tools and mechanisms designed for their benefit and of the significant advantages provided by the State regarding exchange operations, various financial operations and investment operations.
These measures also include the National Post Office, invited to conduct promotional campaigns for the benefit of Tunisians abroad, in order to inform them of services offered by the State such as foreign currency current accounts, convertible dinar savings accounts, and international withdrawal and payment cards, alongside exchange services at differential fares, to facilitate financial operations and provide the best conditions for them, and to ensure continuous sessions for providing consular services to Tunisians abroad on Saturdays and Sundays each week.
Among the measures also approved by the Cabinet are to develop digitalisation of consular services (remote extraction of civil status documents - procedures for registering births, deaths and marriages abroad), accelerate completion of the Digital Consulate Gateway project and generalise the remote appointment booking service (e-RDV), following the success of the pilot phase in a number of model consulates, while edeavouring to provide the possibility for Tunisians residing abroad to settle consular fees via the digital consular services platform.
The development of new digital services for the benefit of Tunisians residing abroad also includes services at the level of the General Directorate of Border Police and Foreigners, enabling submission of passport renewal applications for individuals and families and payment of the service tax, as well as individual and group (family) appointment booking.
At the level of ferries, enabling the submission of passport renewal applications for individuals and families and payment of the service tax, in addition to establishing a dedicated mobile digital platform for the ferries "Carthage" and "Tanit", designed to complete the machine-readable passport application form and obtain the pre-stamped tax stamp before boarding the ferry, and to roll out the e-travel stamp service.
The small cabinet meeting approved the adoption of a series of new digital services aimed at streamlining vehicle registration procedures for Tunisians residing abroad, through a dedicated application for vehicles which helps activate a modern user interface, allow the electronic extraction and renewal of circulation permits (Diptyque) under simplified conditions and shortened timeframes, and enable them to submit their applications and obtain administrative permits remotely, renew circulation permits and correct them remotely.
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These services also cover the declaration of the final return date and the completion of "departure without a vehicle" procedures and the submission of a licence application for a vehicle to be driven by someone other than the owner, for vehicles classified under the "NT" series, and the acceleration of the processing of requests for customs exemptions and the facilitation of remote vehicle insurance and payment of premiums via international bank cards.
The PM pointed out at the end of meeting the need for close coordination between all relevant public bodies, with daily monitoring, to ensure the improvement of transport services of all kinds, the upgrading of administrative, digital and public services, the completion of all digitalisation projects across all sectors, and the streamlining of procedures for the benefit of all Tunisians, wherever they may be, She also urged the banking sector to further develop savings instruments and new financial mechanisms tailored to the needs of Tunisians living abroad, and urged diplomatic missions to provide more support to the Tunisian diaspora and to facilitate procedures for their benefit.
