in the sea off the coast of Tunisia several migrants have been found dead again. The Navy have seven corpses not far from the Kerkennah Islands, a spokesman for a court in the nearby town of Sfax told the German Press Agency on Wednesday.
The bodies were discovered on Tuesday evening, but it is unclear when the people died.
A large number of migrants are currently trying to get there by boat from Tunisia across the Mediterranean to Italy to drive. Many die on the dangerous crossing.
At least five migrants died off the coast near Sfax on Monday when their boat sank, the court spokesman reported. A total of 35 people were on board. Several people are listed as missing. According to Tunisian authorities more than 950 migrants have drowned this year off the coast of the country.
EU deal with Tunisia to limit crossings
The Tunisian National Guard announced on Wednesday that they had in the past two nights 18 planned crossings to Italy prevented. A total of 630 people wanted to leave. The majority come from countries south of the Sahara. Also be 20 suspected smugglers arrested been.
The EU recently negotiated an agreement with Tunisia. The economically badly hit North African country receives financial aid of up to 900 million euros and in return is said to take stronger action against people smugglers and illegal crossings.
The Interior Ministry in Rome counted this year more than 100,000 people who reached Italy on boats – twice as many as in the same period last year. According to this, 100,938 people arrived by Tuesday – in the same period of 2022 there were 48,295. Among the migrants were also in the current year very large number of unaccompanied minors (10,290).
According to the Interior Ministry, this is the highest number of arrivals since 2017 in the same comparative period. If the trend continues, Italy could even surpass the record number of 2016 by the end of the year. At that time, around 181,000 people arrived.
in the current year Guinea, Ivory Coast, Egypt and Tunisia the countries from which most migrants have arrived this year.
Quite a few people try again and again with often unseaworthy boats to reach Italy from Tunisia and Libya. The highly dangerous crossings sometimes lead to devastating boat accidents. According to figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). missing in the Mediterranean Sea since the beginning of 2096who are believed to have drowned.
Many sub-Saharan migrants have wanted to leave Tunisia since President Kais Saied several months ago accused them of bringing violence and crime into the country. Since then, hostilities and racist attacks against them have increased significantly. (dpa)
