TUNIS: At least 14 African people died, while 54 migrants were rescued when a boat in which they were travelling to reach Europe sank off the Tunisian coast, the Tunisian National Guard said on Thursday.
According to Arab News, National Guard spokesperson Houssameddine Jbabli said that 14 bodies got back overnight in the Mediterranean Sea off Tunisia’s central Sfax region; the Tunisian National Guard said the African migrants were from sub-Saharan Africa but didn’t release their nationalities.
Jbabli said, on the same night, coast guard vessels thwarted 14 other boats carrying a total of 435 migrants attempting a similar journey from central and southern regions of Tunisia.
Migrants fleeing conflict, poverty
According to the International Organization for Migration, people fleeing conflict or poverty routinely take boats from Tunisian shores toward Europe, even though the central Mediterranean is a dangerous migration route in the world. Several are from sub-Saharan Africa, but Tunisians and people of other nationalities are among those highly risking the journey.
Tunisian authorities have stepped up arrests of African people without residency papers in current weeks after President Kais Saied lashed out at sub-Saharan migrants. The comments fanned a surge in racist incidents hitting Black Africans in Tunisia.
