Unemployed university graduates staged a protest in Tunisia’s southwestern Gafsa governorate on Monday, demanding that the government implement a law intended to provide jobs for people who have been out of work for more than a decade.
The demonstrators gathered outside the governorate headquarters, calling on the Tunisian authorities to enforce Law No. 18, which parliament approved in late 2025 but has yet to be implemented.
Protesters criticised what they described as months of delay and said they would continue demonstrations across Tunisia until the authorities begin carrying out the recruitment programme.
The Gafsa protest follows a series of actions by unemployed degree holders. Days earlier, protesters in Tunis symbolically offered their university diplomas for sale in what they described as an “open auction.”
They said the Tunisian state would be given first priority to buy the certificates, a gesture aimed at highlighting the frustration of qualified graduates who remain unemployed while public institutions face shortages in staffing.
In June, unemployed graduates also demonstrated in the government district of Kasbah before marching towards Habib Bourguiba Avenue, chanting slogans including “work, freedom, national dignity.”
Law No. 18 of 2025 provides for exceptional recruitment of university graduates who have remained unemployed for more than 10 years.
Under the legislation, applicants are to register through an electronic platform and be ranked according to criteria including graduation year, age and social circumstances.
Recruitment is expected to be carried out gradually over a three-year period.
The continued protests have increased pressure on the government to explain when the system will become operational and when the first beneficiaries will receive public-sector appointments.