Four migrants, all from sub-Saharan Africa, have died and 51 others are missing after a shipwreck last weekend off the Tunisian coast, near Sfax, the epicenter of illegal emigration to Europe, judicial sources said Monday (August 7th). For the moment, "four bodies have been recovered, two migrants have been rescued and 51 are missing," Faouzi Masmoudi, spokesman for the Sfax court, told AFP.
Research continues
On the makeshift boat that left a beach north of Sfax, opposite the Kerkennah Islands, were 57 migrants, according to survivors' testimony. This tragedy has nothing to do with the two shipwrecks that killed at least 30 people near the island of Lampedusa, Italy, which is about 130 km from Sfax. The coast guard is continuing its search for possible survivors, according to the spokesman.
They are also trying to find out "if there have been other shipwrecks in this area", after the discovery between Friday and Sunday of "12 bodies on beaches" north of Sfax, according to a new assessment by Faouzi Masmoudi. It is impossible to know if these corpses may have come from the shipwreck near the Kerkennah. From 1 January to 20 July, 901 bodies of migrants were recovered off the coast of Tunisia, the majority of them from sub-Saharan Africa.
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Abandoned in the desert
According to UNHCR's latest statistics, since the beginning of 2023, more than 87,000 migrants have landed illegally in Italy, mostly from Tunisia, with the rest arriving from Libya. The Central Mediterranean, between North Africa and Italy, is the world's most dangerous migration route with more than 20,000 deaths since 2014, according to IOM. Departures of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have accelerated after a speech on 21 February by President Kais Saied denouncing the arrival of illegal "hordes of migrants" who he said had come to "change the demographic composition" of the country.
After the death on July 3 of a Tunisian in a brawl between migrants and locals, hundreds of black Africans were driven out of Sfax. Many decided to attempt the crossing. And at least 2000,25 Africans, according to new data provided by a humanitarian source to AFP, have been taken by Tunisian police to the borders with Libya and Algeria and abandoned in desert areas. At least <> have died in the Tunisian-Libyan desert since early July, according to the latest toll from humanitarian sources.