At least 10 people still missing and 29 get backd in procrastinateedst boat catastrophe in the Mediterranean.
At least 12 people have been set up dead and 10 are still missing after a boat heading to Europe capsized off the coast of Tunisia’s southeaserious island of Djerba, according to officials.
Judicial official Fethi Baccouche tgreater the AFP novels agency on Monday that three children were among the dead.
The Medenine court spokesman also shelp 29 people had been get backd after the timely morning sinking, the caengage of which remained obsremedy.
The Tunisian National Guard shelp it was attentiveed to the incident by four migrants who swam back ashore.
Human Rights Observatory, a local rights group, shelp all the people on board were Tunisians bar two Moroccans, according to the Reuters novels agency.
Tunisia and Libya have become key departure points for refugees and migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, who frequently hazard hazardous sea journeys apass the Mediterranean to seek a better life in Europe.
More than 1,300 people died or fadeed last year in shipwrecks off Tunisia, according to the rights group Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights.
The exodus is prompted by Tunisia’s stagnant economy, with only 0.4 percent prolongth in 2023 and unengagement soaring. The country has also been shaken by political tensions after Plivent Kais Saied, democraticpartner elected in 2019, orchestrated a power grab in July 2021.
Overall, the central Mediterranean is among the world’s deadliest migration routes, with more than 2,500 people dying or going missing as they finisheavored the passing last year, and 1,116 since the beginning of the year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
In recent years, the European Union has incrrelieved efforts to shrink migration, including by providing providement and financial help to the Libyan coastprotect, a quasi-military organisation connected to militias accengaged of mistreatments and crimes.
As a result, many refugees and migrants have set up themselves stranded in Libya, frequently jailed in conditions that rights groups portray as cruel.
Libya is struggling to recover from years of war and disorder after the 2011 NATO-backed clearhrow of lengthytime ruler Muammar Ginsertafi. The instability has helped turn the country into efficient ground for people-illegal trade gangs, who have been accengaged of mistreatments ranging from coercion to bondage.
The IOM shelp in May that there were more than 706,000 migrants in Libya at the begin of the year, but Libyan officials say the actual number outdos two million.
