Twelve Tunisian emigrants, including babies and women, died drowned in the sinking of their boat off the coast of the tourist island of Djerba, in the south-east of Tunisia, it was reported on Monday 30 September to Agence France-Presse (AFP), a judicial source.
Twenty-nine others were saved in this accident of unknown causes which occurred at dawn. The twelve victims, “originating from several regions of Tunisia”are “five men, four women and three babies”specified the spokesperson for the Medenine court, Fethi Baccouche, who did not give the initial number of passengers or information on possible missing people.
Coast guard units intervened to “provide assistance to a sinking boat which was carrying a group of people, Tunisians and “foreigners” [terme utilisé pour désigner les Africains subsahariens] »reported the National Guard in a press release. The coast guards were “alerted by four passengers who swam back” on the shore, according to the National Guard.
1,300 migrants died in 2023
Along with Libya, Tunisia, whose coastline is in some places less than 150 kilometers from 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 conflicts in their countries, particularly in Sudan and Yemen, attempt the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean from the Tunisian coast to reach the Italian coast, in the hope of reaching Europe. Thousands of Tunisians are also seeking to leave their country clandestinely, facing a deterioration in the economic situation and strong political tensions since a coup by the president, Kaïs Saïed, in the summer of 2021.
More than 1,300 migrants died or went missing last year in shipwrecks near 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 start of 2024, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration.
Source: Lemonde
