TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) – Four pregnant women were among 20 migrants whose bodies were found off the coast of Tunisia after their smuggled boat sank, Tunisian authorities said on Friday, as search efforts continued for another 13 people considered missing.
Nineteen of the 20 migrants who died in Thursday’s sinking were women, according to Mourad Torki, a court spokesman in the Sfax region of central Tunisia.
Coast guards and local fishermen recovered the bodies and brought them to shore and transferred them in white body bags to a nearby hospital where autopsies were performed.
Four migrants were rescued, Torki said: One remained under medical supervision on Friday and another fled the hospital.
The boat, overloaded and in poor condition, was carrying 37 people – three Tunisians and others from sub-Saharan Africa, Torki said. Coast guards and divers were searching for the 13 missing, but found no new bodies or survivors on Friday amid strong winds and high waves in the area.
Tunisian authorities say they have recently intercepted several smugglers with migrants, but that the number of attempts has increased, especially between the Sfax region and the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Migrant smuggling boats frequently leave the coast of Tunisia and neighboring Libya, transporting people from all over Africa, including a growing number of Tunisians fleeing prolonged economic difficulties in their country.