Thirteen Sudanese migrants died and twenty-seven are missing after their iron boat sank Thursday from the Tunisian coast near Sfax, Farid Ben Jha, spokesperson for the Monastir court, told AFP.
A total of 42 Sudanese were on a makeshift boat that left the coast of Jebiniana, near Sfax (center-east), according to the account given to the authorities by the only two survivors of the shipwreck.
Operations are underway to try to find other shipwrecked people, assured Farid Ben Jha.
All Sudanese men and nationals, the victims had asylum seeker cards issued by the High Commission for Refugees in Tunisia.
These refugees had boarded a very fragile metal boat, made of pieces of scrap metal hastily welded together, according to the first information collected.
Nearly 70,000 illegal immigrants in the first eleven months of 2023
An investigation has been opened to determine responsibilities, added Farid Ben Jha, not excluding the probability that these migrants were
“exploited in a case of human trafficking or in the formation of a criminal group to reach Europe clandestinely »
.
Tunisia is, with Libya, the main departure point for thousands of migrants seeking to reach Europe illegally.
The first Italian coasts, including the island of Lampedusa, are located less than 150 km from the Sfax region.
Over the first eleven months of 2023, the number of candidates for illegal emigration intercepted by the Tunisian authorities stood at 69,963 people, more than double the interceptions over the same period of the previous year, according to statistics sent to AFP by the spokesperson for the National Guard.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 2,270 people died in 2023 in the central Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe clandestinely, or 60% more than the previous year.