Twenty migrants remained missing this afternoon after their boat capsized yesterday off the coast of Tunisia, where they were able to rescue 17 passengers, the Tunisian court in the port city of Sfax reported today.
A total of 37 migrants, from sub-Saharan African countries, “set sail from the coast and their boat capsized on Friday afternoon,” said Faouzi Masmoudi, a spokesman for the Sfax court, quoted by the AFP news agency.
The spokesman specified that they were aware of the shipwreck yesterday afternoon and that they opened an investigation, which includes testimonies from the survivors.
This is the sixth shipwreck of a boat with migrants off the coast of Tunisia since the beginning of March, according to an AFP balance that counts at least 100 dead.
The Tunisian national guard announced yesterday that between January and the end of March they rescued “14,406 people, 13,138 of them from sub-Saharan Africa and the rest from Tunisia.
This figure is five times higher than the same period last year.
The number of rescued in 2023 “increased considerably, because there were many more people who set sail,” according to Houssem Jebabli, a spokesman for the national guard.
The vast majority of boat rescues and interceptions this year took place in the Sfax area, the country’s second largest city.
Many of the migrant boats trying to reach Europe clandestinely set sail from Tunisia, since part of its coast is less than 150 kilometers from the Italian island of Lampedusa.
These attempts to cross the Mediterranean have intensified since February 21, when Tunisian President Kais Saied delivered a harsh speech against irregular migration.
Source: Ambito
