Boat sinks in Tunisia, leaves 19 African immigrants dead

No less than 19 sub-Saharan African migrants perished when their boat capsized off the coast of Tunisia while attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Italy.

According to Al Jazeera, a human rights organization disclosed the most recent migrant boat accident off the coast of Tunisia on Sunday.

Following a large surge of boats travelling towards Italy, five migrant boats have sunk in the previous four days off the southern city of Sfax, leaving 67 people missing and nine people dead.

According to Romadan ben Omar, a representative of the Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES), the Tunisian coast guard saved five persons from a boat off the coast of Mahdia after they set out from the beaches of Sfax.

In the last four days, the coast guard claimed to have halted over 80 boats headed for Italy and captured more than 3,000 migrants, most of them from sub-Saharan African nations.

People fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East in search of a better life in Europe increasingly leave from the coast near Sfax.

The most recent catastrophe occurs in the middle of a campaign of undocumented sub-Saharan Africans being detained by Tunisian police.

UN statistics show that this year, at least 12,000 migrants arrived in Italy from Tunisia, compared to 1,300 during the same time period in 2022. In the past, Libya served as the main point of departure for migrants.

The Tunisian coast guard stopped more than 14,000 migrants from leaving aboard boats during the first three months of this year, compared to 2,900 during the same period last year, according to FTDES statistics.

On Thursday, the Italian coast guard reported that in two operations off the southern Italian coast, it had saved roughly 750 migrants.

If Tunisia's financial stability is not preserved, Europe runs the risk of seeing a massive influx of migrants from North Africa, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday. Meloni urged the IMF and a few nations to assist Tunisia right away in order to prevent its demise.

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