TUNIS (Reuters) – At least 29 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa sank off the coast of Tunisia as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, killing at least 29, the Tunisian Coast Guard said.
Separately, five of her migrant boats sank off the coast of the southern city of Sfax in the past four days, leaving 67 missing and nine missing, in the past four days after a significant increase in the number of boats bound for Italy. died.
Tunisia has replaced Libya as the main exit for those fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East and wanting a better life in Europe.
A senior national guard official, Houssem Jebabli, told Reuters that the Tunisian coast guard also rescued 11 people further north off Mahdia.
The Coast Guard said it had stopped about 80 ships en route to Italy over the past four days and detained more than 3,000 migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa. The latest deaths occurred during an undocumented campaign by Tunisian authorities to arrest black Africans.
According to the United Nations, at least 12,000 migrants have sailed from Tunisia to arrive in Italy this year, compared with 1,300 during the same period in 2022.
The Tunisian Coast Guard has blocked more than 14,000 migrants from leaving the country by boat in the first three months of this year, according to figures from the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights.
The Italian Coast Guard said Thursday that it had rescued about 750 migrants in his two operations off the coast of southern Italy.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday that Europe risks seeing a massive wave of migration from North Africa to its coast unless financial stability is guaranteed in Tunisia. Meloni called on the IMF and some countries to quickly help Tunisia avoid collapse.
