Mediterranean claims more migrant lives but deadly crossings to Europe continue
The death toll from the sinking of migrant boats off Tunisia at the weekend has risen to 20 people, a judicial official has said.
Tunisia’s coastguard recovered three more bodies on Monday, said Mourad Turki, a spokesman for the courts in the city of Sfax.
Seventeen bodies were recovered at the weekend after four boats carrying 120 African migrants to Italy capsized.
On Sunday, the Tunisian navy rescued 98 people of the 120 believed to be on the boats, Ali Ayari, a spokesman for the Tunisian National Guard in Sfax, told AP.
The boats had been en route to Italy, he said.
Hundreds of thousands of people have made the perilous Mediterranean crossing in the past few years.
The International Organisation for Migration estimates that more than 1,500 people died or went missing in the area in 2021 and more than 500 so far this year.
The UN agency described the central Mediterranean, which connects Libya and the Maghreb countries to Italy and Malta, as the most dangerous migration route in the world.
Sunday’s disaster is the latest in a series involving migrant boats off Tunisia.
Despite rough weather, migration attempts from both the Tunisian and Libyan coasts to Italy have risen sharply in the past few years.
Many such crossings end in tragedy, with dozens of people drowning.
The UN refugee agency estimated that more than 123,000 migrants arrived in Italy last year, compared with about 95,000 in 2020.
Tunisian authorities had already recovered the bodies of 13 migrants, including six women and six children, after their boats capsized during the dangerous sea crossing this month. About a dozen others remain unaccounted for.
The coastline of Sfax has become a major departure point for people fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa and the Middle East and seeking a better life in Europe.