Tunisian ship hits boat with migrants in Maltese SAR; eight dead, 38 rescued

Eight have died and a further 20 are believed to be missing following the collision of a Tunisian naval ship with a wooden boat packed with migrants, the UN migration agency and the Armed Forces of Malta said yesterday. Tunisian authorities said 38 people had been rescued.

The accident took place in the Maltese search and rescue area.

The Tunisian defence department said in a statement that the collision happened on Sunday about 54 kilometers off the coast of El Ataya, on the island of Kerkennah. The circumstances remain unclear.

Maltese authorities coordinated the rescue with the assistance of the Italian and Tunisian navies.

The exact numbers on board were unknown, but Flavio Di Giacomo, of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said it is believed that the boat was carrying around 75 Tunisian migrants.

The number of Tunisians making their way from Tunisia to Italy is on the rise, although the reasons are not clear. IOM says that 1,400 Tunisians arrived in Italy last month alone, compared with 1,357 in the first eight months of the year.

But that is only those who have been officially counted.

In a statement, the AFM said that in the early hours of the morning, RCC MT was informed by Tunisian counterparts that the Tunisian navy was involved in a rescue operation in a position between Tunisia and Lampedusa following a collision between a Tunisian navy vessel and a boat with migrants that had departed from Tunisia.

“Following a request for assistance, RCC MT is coordinating the case and providing for search efforts together with the assistance of the Italian navy in addition to the Tunisian navy. As of yet, the Tunisian navy is reported to have rescued 38 persons while eight deceased persons have been recovered.” An AFM King Air aircraft has been sent to the area to better survey the situation.

Non-governmental organisations in Sicily estimate that three times that many have arrived since June, most in wooden boats that get left on the shore.

“We have documented around 80 boats left on the beaches from June through today, since the route from Libya was interrupted,” Claudio Lombardo of the NGO Mareamico told Sky TG24, referring to a decrease in number of sea rescues since Italian authorities reached deals with Libyan players to reduce migrant trafficking.

He said they estimate at least 3,000 North Africans had arrived on the boats, of whom authorities have detained just 400. The rest have disappeared, presumably moving on in search of work and earning the moniker “ghost arrivals.”

Di Giacomo said the reason for the spike in arrivals from Tunisia is unclear, but that it could be the result of an economic crisis that has pushed Tunisians to try to find work in Italy after the end of the summer tourism season in northern Africa. He said that so far those coming don’t appear to be sub-Saharan Africans seeking a new route to Europe.

So far this year, IOM says 2,658 migrants have died or gone missing trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea in rickety smugglers’ boats, almost all of those trying to reach Italy. That compares with 3,682 overall last year.