Speaking to French media outlet, Agence France-Presse, AFP, Tunisian Human Rights League chief Bassem Trifi said Saadia Mosbah, the head of the Mnemty association, was being "kept in custody for five days pending investigation."
Her arrest came as authorities waged a campaign against sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia, expelling them from cities and other areas.
Local media reported that the police began investigating Mosbah, whose group combats racism and defends migrants' rights, on suspicion of financial crimes.
Residents of the southern town of El Amra demonstrated in favor of deporting migrants last weekend, saying the situation had become unbearable.
Mosbah was among those that spoke against a speech by President Kais Saied last year in which he denounced "hordes of illegal migrants" as a demographic threat.
Her arrest came just hours after Saied lashed out at organizations that defend the rights of sub-Saharan migrants in the country.
"The associations that cry today and shed tears in the media receive huge amounts of money from abroad," Saied said at a meeting on Monday of the national security council.
"Most of their leaders are traitors and mercenaries," he charged.
The authorities have raided several encampments in recent weeks, tearing down tents and expelling migrants.
The Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights NGO said authorities in the nation’s capital, Tunis, on Friday cleared encampments and expelled hundreds of asylum seekers, migrants and refugees, before busing them west to near the border with Algeria.
The North African nation has been grappling with a severe migration crisis due to an influx of Sub-Saharan Africans seeking to migrate to Europe in boats. It has replaced Libya as the region’s main departure point for people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East.
Information for this article was sourced from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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