The Tunisian navy rescued on the night of Thursday July 30 to Friday July 31 a boat in distress carrying 70 people from sub-Saharan Africa, who left Libya for Italy, the Defense Ministry told AFP.
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The navy intervened at the last minute around 1 a.m. in international waters, while the boat, an inflatable, was broken down and was taking on water, said the spokesman of the ministry, Mohamed Zekri. Among the migrants, from several countries in sub-Saharan Africa, were five women and four children, including a few months old, said Mongi Slim, representative of the Red Crescent in the region.
Left Wednesday from Zouara, in western Libya, they were disembarked Friday at midday 140 km away, at the port of Zarzis, in southern Tunisia, near the Libyan border. Tests are underway to determine if some of them are infected with the new coronavirus and all will be placed in confinement in a Red Crescent home, Slim told AFP.
Daily interceptions
In addition to departures from Libya, those from Tunisia have increased, with many arrivals on the Italian island of Lampedusa in recent days. The Tunisian authorities have intercepted "daily" in recent days clandestine boats from Tunisia bound for Italy, said Commander Zekri.
Thursday evening, a naval unit thus recovered at sea 27 Tunisians who left Zarzis and 13 passengers from a boat that left Sfax (center), according to local media.
Nearly half of the some 11,000 migrants who landed in Italy between January and the end of July had left Tunisia and most of them were Tunisian citizens, according to Rome. Most of the others had embarked from Libya.
