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Lifebelt in the Mediterranean (symbolic photo)
Photo: imago stock&people / imago images / JOKER
After a shipwreck off the coast of Tunisia, 75 people are missing.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Twitter that 24 migrants had been rescued.
A body was recovered by the Coast Guard.
The rescue operation near the city of Sfax continues.
The boat had therefore left the city of Suwara in western Libya.
IOM spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo wrote, also on Twitter, that 650 people have died in the Mediterranean this year.
"Yet the appeal to strengthen the system of sea search and rescue patrols goes unheeded," he wrote.
Another shipwreck had occurred off Tunisia the night before, when an overcrowded wooden boat with 110 people capsized, as the German rescue organization Resqship announced.
The sailing boat "Nadir", together with a boat from the Spanish aid organization Open Arms, was able to transport people who had fallen into the water to life rafts.
According to the helpers, the crews and the rescued people were waiting on Wednesday morning for help from a ship that could take the migrants on board.
"The behavior of the European authorities is scandalous and endangers human lives: Despite several emergency calls, all European authorities have refused help in the last 8 hours!" Resqship said.
In the Mediterranean Sea, people die again and again trying to get to Europe on overcrowded and often unseaworthy boats.
Above all, Tunisia's neighbor Libya has become an important transit country for migrants who want to go to Europe because of the unstable political situation resulting from the local civil war.
According to the IOM, 6,340 migrants from Libya have been stopped and brought back to the North African country since the beginning of the year.
At least 129 people died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, 459 more were missing and are believed to be dead. In the summer months, the number of attempted crossings to Europe increases.
In recent years, almost 2,000 refugees have drowned in the Mediterranean or have been reported missing.
The actual death toll is likely to be even higher.
fek/dpa/AFP