At least 35 migrants dead after boat sinks

TUNIS: At least 35 migrants were killed when their boat sank off Tunisia’s southern coast and 67 others were rescued by the coast guard, the Defence Ministry said yesterday.

The rescue operation was ongoing, the ministry said in a statement. The migrants were of Tunisian and other nationalities.

Human traffickers increasingly use Tunisia as a launch pad for migrants heading to Europe as Libya’s coast guard, aided by armed groups, has tightened controls.

Security officials said the boat was packed with about 180 migrants, including 80 from other African countries.

Unemployed Tunisians and other Africans often try to depart in makeshift boats from Tunisia to Sicily in Italy.

Meanwhile, nine migrants, including six children, seeking to head to Europe in a speedboat drowned yesterday when the vessel sank off Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, state media reports said.

The boat hit trouble off the Demre district of Turkey’s Mediterranean Antalya province, a popular holiday spot, the staterun Anadolu news agency said.

Five were rescued while one person was still missing, it added.

Two adults, one woman and six children lost their lives, it said.

The Dogan news agency said that they were seeking to head illegally to Europe but their planned route was not immediately clear.

The nationalities of those on board have yet to be made clear.

Over a million people, many fleeing the war in Syria, crossed to European Union member Greece from Turkey in 2015 after the onset of the bloc’s worst migration crisis since World War II.

Turkey struck a deal with the EU in 2016 in a effort to stem the flow of migrants into Europe, and agreed to take back illegal migrants landing on Greek islands in exchange for incentives including financial aid. — Agencies