Twelve Tunisian emigrants, including babies and women, drowned when their boat sank off the coast of the tourist island of Djerba, in the southeast of Tunisia, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on Monday, September 30. , a judicial source.
Twenty-nine other people were saved in this accident of unknown causes that occurred in the early morning. The twelve victims, “originally from various regions of Tunisia”are “five men, four women and three babies”said the spokesperson for the Medenine court, Fethi Baccouche, who did not provide the initial number of passengers or information on possible missing persons.
Coast guard units intervened to “providing assistance to a sinking ship in which a group of people, Tunisians and “foreigners” were traveling [terme utilisé pour désigner les Africains subsahariens] »the National Guard reported in a press release. The coast guard was “alerted by four passengers who swam back” on the shore, according to the National Guard.
1,300 immigrants died in 2023
Along with Libya, Tunisia, whose coastline is in some places less than 150 kilometers from the Italian island of Sicily, is the main departure point in North Africa for migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe.
Every year, tens of thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, fleeing poverty and conflict in their countries, particularly Sudan and Yemen, attempt to cross the dangerous Mediterranean from the Tunisian coast to reach the Italian coast, hoping to reach Europe. Thousands of Tunisians are also seeking to leave their country clandestinely, facing a deterioration in the economic situation and strong political tensions since the coup d’état of President Kais Saied in the summer of 2021.
More than 1,300 migrants died or went missing last year in shipwrecks off the Tunisian coast, according to the NGO Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights.
Over the past decade, a total of 30,309 migrants have died in the Mediterranean, including 3,155 in 2023, one of the deadliest years, and 1,405 since the beginning of 2024, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration.
