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Several irregular migrants from sub-Saharan Africa drown off Tunisia coast

The shipwreck was the latest tragedy off the coast of Tunisia, which has increasingly been used as a way into Europe by desperate African migrants and asylum seekers.

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Italy recorded a whopping 317 percent increase in migrants and asylum seekers coming to the country by sea in the first three months of 2023, according to an official of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Ten migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have drowned off Tunisia after their boat sank while trying to reach Europe, the coastguard said, with at least 20 more reported missing.

"Seventy-two migrants were rescued and 10 bodies recovered after Tuesday's shipwreck" off the city of Sfax, said spokesman Houssem Jebabli.

Between 20 and 30 more African migrants were listed as missing, Faouzi Masmoudi, the spokesman of a local court investigating the incident, told AFP.

Jebabli said all those killed hailed from sub-Saharan African countries. The coastguard also said they had foiled another migrant sea crossing from the northern coast.

Tunisia has increasingly been used as a springboard for the often perilous attempts by desperate West Africans, Sudanese and others to reach Europe in hopes of better lives.

The Italian island of Lampedusa lies about 150 kilometres from the Tunisian coast.

Latest tragedy

Tuesday's shipwreck was the latest tragedy after boats had capsized on Friday and Saturday off the Tunisian coast, claiming the lives of 27 migrants and asylum seekers.

In late March the bodies of 29 sub-Saharan African migrants were retrieved from Tunisian waters following three separate shipwrecks.

The number of such voyages has risen after Tunisian President Kais Saied in February ordered officials to take "urgent measures" to tackle irregular immigration.

Saied charged, without evidence, that a "criminal plot" was underway to change Tunisia's demographic makeup, sparking a wave of evictions and violence against Black migrants.

Tunisian police on Tuesday used tear gas to disperse migrants who had been protesting outside the office of the UN refugee agency to demand their return to their home countries.

Tunisia's coastguard said Friday that it had intercepted more than 14,000 migrants and asylum seekers on their way to Europe between January and March -- five times more than in the first quarter of 2022.

SOURCE: AFP