Tunisian authorities recovered the our bodies of 20 individuals who appeared to have drowned after a shipwreck off the nation’s Mediterranean shoreline, close to a preferred level of departure for migrants trying to succeed in Europe by boat
TUNIS, Tunisia — Tunisian authorities recovered the our bodies of 20 individuals who appeared to have drowned after a shipwreck off the nation’s Mediterranean shoreline, close to a preferred level of departure for migrants trying to succeed in Europe by boat.
The nation’s Nationwide Guard mentioned in a press release on Wednesday that coast guard members dispatched to the sinking ship rescued 5 folks and retrieved the our bodies of 20 others 15 miles (24 kilometers) off the coast north of Sfax. The shoreline is roughly 81 miles (130 kilometers) from the Italian island of Lampedusa.
The Nationwide Guard mentioned that it continued to seek for lacking folks and didn’t point out what number of could have been on board when the ship set off.
With help from Europe, authorities in Tunisia have strengthened the policing of their borders in an effort to stop deaths at sea and fight smugglers and migrants crossing illegally to southern Europe. But drownings and corpses washing ashore are often reported, together with final week when authorities discovered the our bodies of 9 individuals who appeared to have drowned at sea alongside the identical stretch of shoreline.
The iron boats that migrants and smugglers use to try to cross the Mediterranean are sometimes unseaworthy. Although there isn’t any official depend, worldwide teams and Tunisian NGOs consider tons of have perished at sea this yr. The United Nations’ refugee company, UNHCR, estimates greater than 1,100 have died or gone lacking within the central Mediterranean off the coasts of Tunisia and Libya. The Tunisian Discussion board for Financial and Social Rights believes between 600 and 700 folks have died or gone lacking off the coast of Tunisia.
Greater than 19,000 migrants have embarked from Tunisia and arrived in Italy this yr, together with many who subsequently utilized for asylum, based on UNHCR. That is far fewer than the greater than 96,000 who made the journey by the identical level in 2023. The bulk who’ve arrived in Italy in 2024 have been from Bangladesh, Tunisia and Syria.
There isn’t any official numbers relating to migrants in Tunisia. Nonetheless, hundreds reside in makeshift camps amongst olive timber close to Sfax’s shoreline.
