Three migrants died and ten others are missing after the sinking of their makeshift boat off the coast of central-eastern Tunisia, we learned Friday, May 20 from the National Guard.
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According to the same source, 44 other migrants were rescued.
Leaving the coast of Sfax, the boat with more than 50 migrants on board, all of Tunisian nationality, who were trying to reach Europe illegally, sank off this port city, said Houcem Eddine Jebabli, spokesperson for the national guard, the Tunisian gendarmerie.
The city of Sfax is one of the main departure points for Tunisian and foreign migrants, particularly from sub-Saharan Africa, towards the Italian coasts.
As summer approaches, the pace of clandestine departures accelerates and many migrants drown.
At the beginning of May, the Tunisian authorities announced that they had found the bodies of 24 migrants who had drowned after the sinking of their boats off the coast of Sfax.
Between April 22 and 30, four boats capsized off the coast of the same city, causing the drowning of migrants rescued the following days, while 97 people were rescued.
15,671 migrants in 2021
Italy is one of the main entry points into Europe for migrants from North Africa, who arrive mainly from Tunisia and Libya, two countries from which departures increased considerably in 2021. This year There, 15,671 migrants including 584 women managed to reach Italian soil from the Tunisian coasts against 12,883 (including 353 women) in 2020, according to the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES).
Read alsoThe European Union erects barriers to the influx of migrants
In total, more than 123,000 migrants landed in Italy in 2021, compared to some 95,000 the previous year, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Nearly 2,000 migrants were reported missing or drowned in the Mediterranean in the same year compared to 1,401 in 2020, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
