Eleven migrants, all from sub-Saharan Africa, have died and 44 others are missing after a shipwreck in the Mediterranean off the port of Sfax, the epicenter of illegal emigration in Tunisia, judicial sources announced on Monday.
At the same time, a Moroccan military source reported the discovery, on the migratory route of the Atlantic, of five bodies of migrants, all Senegalese, after the sinking of their boat off the disputed territory of Western Sahara. A total of 189 others were saved.
In Tunisia, “seven new bodies were recovered on Sunday evening” in addition to the four previously found after the shipwreck north of Sfax, Faouzi Masmoudi, spokesman for the court in Tunisia’s second city, told AFP.
“The search is continuing,” added the spokesperson, stressing that only two migrants could be rescued on a boat which had 57 occupants, according to the survivors.
Their makeshift boat had left on an undetermined date from a beach north of Sfax, opposite the Kerkennah Islands.
The coastguards are trying to find out “if there have been other shipwrecks in this area”, after the discovery between Friday and Sunday of “12 bodies on the beaches” north of Sfax, Mr. Masmoudi.
It is not possible at this time to know whether or not the 12 bodies came from the shipwreck near the Kerkennahs.
On the other hand, this tragedy has nothing to do with two shipwrecks of boats that left Sfax probably last Thursday, which left at least 30 people missing near the island of Lampedusa, in Italy, according to the Italian coastguards.
Sfax is about 130 km from Lampedusa and since early 2023 has been the main point of departure for thousands of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
From January 1 to July 20, 901 bodies of migrants were recovered off Tunisia, the majority of them from sub-Saharan Africa, according to an official Tunisian report.
According to the latest UNHCR statistics, since the beginning of 2023, more than 87,000 migrants have landed illegally in Italy, mainly from Tunisia, with the rest arriving from Libya.
The central Mediterranean, between North Africa and Italy, is the most dangerous migration route in the world with more than 20,000 deaths since 2014, according to the IOM.
Departures of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have accelerated after a speech on February 21 by Tunisian President Kais Saied denouncing the arrival of “hordes of illegal migrants” who, according to him, have “changed the demographic composition” of his 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 have decided to attempt the crossing.
And at least 2,000 Africans, according to new data provided by a humanitarian source to AFP, were taken by Tunisian police to the borders with Libya and Algeria and abandoned in desert areas.
At least 25 have died in the Tunisian-Libyan desert since early July, according to the latest toll from humanitarian sources.
In the shipwreck announced Monday in Morocco, the five bodies as well as 11 migrants “in critical condition” were transferred to a hospital in Dakhla.
The migrant boat had left illegally “from a country located south of the Kingdom”, trying to reach the Canary Islands (Spain), before being intercepted off Guerguart in “difficult situation”, according to the military source.
Located at the northwestern tip of Africa, Morocco is a transit country for many migrants seeking to reach Europe from its Atlantic or Mediterranean coasts.
The migratory route of the Canary Islands, gateway to Europe in the Atlantic Ocean, has experienced a marked upsurge in activity in recent weeks from the coasts of north-west Africa.
At least 13 Senegalese migrants died in mid-July when their canoe sank off the Moroccan coast.
07/08/2023 17:49:32 – Tunis (AFP) – © 2023 AFP