Twenty-seven bodies of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were recovered on Wednesday and 83 others were rescued after two boats sank off the Tunisian coast in an attempt to reach Europe clandestinely, an official told AFP on Thursday. responsible for Civil Protection.
“Among the 27 bodies recovered off the coast of (the) Kerkennah archipelago (east) are women and children,” Zied Sdiri, the regional director of Civil Protection in Sfax, told AFP. Around 110 migrants from various sub-Saharan African countries were on board two makeshift boats, which “left from the coast near Sfax on the night of December 31 to January 1,” said a National Guard official under cover of ‘anonymity.
“Operations are underway to search for other missing migrants,” he added. According to Zied Sdiri, 15 of the 83 people rescued by the Tunisian coast guard (affiliated with the National Guard) were transferred to a hospital. The two boats were found about five kilometers from the coast of the Kerkennah Islands, added Zied Sdiri. One of them capsized while the other sank, for reasons yet to be determined.
Along with Libya, Tunisia, whose coastline is in certain places less than 150 km from the Italian island of Lampedusa, is the main departure point in North Africa for migrants seeking to reach Europe.
Several recent shipwrecks
Several shipwrecks have occurred in recent weeks, marked by bad weather conditions. At the end of December, two Tunisian migrants including a five-year-old child died and 17 others were rescued off the country’s northern coast after a breakdown on their makeshift boat. On December 18, at least 20 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa died in a shipwreck off the coast of Sfax (center-east) and five others were missing.
Since the start of the year, the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights has recorded 600 to 700 deaths or disappearances of migrants in shipwrecks off the Tunisian coast, after more than 1,300 deaths or disappearances in 2023.
