Drama off Tunisia. According to an initial assessment, at least 29 migrants from sub-Saharan African countries died drowned in the sinking of several boats, the coast guard announced on Sunday.
Coast Guards recovered 29 bodies and “rescued 11 illegal migrants of multiple African nationalities after their boats sank” off the coast of central-eastern Tunisia, according to a statement that reported three separate incidents.
After this speech, many of the 21,000 nationals of sub-Saharan Africa officially registered in Tunisia, most of them in an irregular situation, had lost their jobs, generally informal, and their housing overnight, as a result of the campaign against the illegals.
Most African migrants arrive in Tunisia and then attempt to illegally immigrate by sea to Europe, with some stretches of Tunisia’s coastline being less than 150 kilometers from the Italian island of Lampedusa. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called on Friday in Brussels to support Tunisia, which is facing a serious financial crisis, under penalty of “triggering an unprecedented wave of migration” to Europe.
She also confirmed a project for an Italo-French mission to Tunisia in which the Italian and French foreign ministers would participate. The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, warned on March 20 that the situation in Tunisia was “very dangerous”, even mentioning a risk of “collapse” of the State likely to “cause migratory flows towards the Union European”. Tunis had rejected this analysis, calling it “disproportionate”.
