Seventeen migrants lost after departing from Tunisia's northern coasts

Tunisian Coast Guard announced on Monday the loss of 17 migrants who departed a week ago in an illegal migration operation from the coasts of the Tunisian province of Bizerte (north).

The official spokesperson for the Coast Guard, Houssem Eddine Jebabli, told AFP, "Search operations continue for the 17 missing migrants who departed last Monday from the coasts of Bizerte."

The missing individuals are Tunisians, including a minor, a father, and a woman, according to Jebabli.

On Saturday, relatives of the missing staged a protest in the center of Bizerte, demanding authorities search for their relatives, local media reported.

Thirteen Sudanese migrants drowned, and 27 others went missing off the eastern coast of Tunisia after their boat sank, a judicial spokesperson told AFP Thursday.

The spokesperson for the Monastir court, Farid Ben Jaha, said 42 migrants departed from the coasts of Jbeniana in the province of Sfax (east), and two migrants were rescued.

All of them were men carrying asylum cards.

Tunisia, alongside Libya, serves as the main departure point for thousands of migrants seeking to reach Europe.

Until November 2023, the Tunisian National Guard intercepted 69,963 migrants compared to 31,297 during the same period in 2022, according to statistics provided to AFP by Houssem Eddine Jebabli.

According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 2,498 people died in 2023 in the Mediterranean Sea while attempting to reach European shores illegally, an increase of 70% from the previous year.

AFP