Deaths of Mediterranean migrants: at least 20 migrants killed off the coast of Tunisia

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The Coast Guard rescued five people and searched for another 20 people who were not yet identified, the official said.

“The boat sank about six miles off the coast of Sfax. Twenty bodies were recovered, another five were rescued and all came from sub-Saharan Africa,” said security official Ali Ayari.

About 45 people were on the boat when it sank, he added.

The coastline near the Tunisian port city of Sfax has become a major starting point for people fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa and the Middle East and seeking a better life in Europe.

Countries, including Italy and Malta, have seen an increase in arrivals at sea this year from Tunisia – where high unemployment and uncertain socio-economic conditions have driven migration – and Libya, where conflict and war have been a major factor, according to the United Nations. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The situation of migrants has been aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic.
But European responses have often been brutal. Humanitarian organizations say pushing borders into countries such as Greece, the lack of maritime rescues in the Mediterranean and the unhealthy quarantine arrangements of the coronavirus have created huge challenges.

Thursday’s deaths add to the already long list this year, even with Covid-19 travel restrictions.

1,111 migrants perished in the Mediterranean in 2020, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Last month, at least 74 migrants died in a shipwreck off the coast of Khums, Libya, with children among the dead.
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According to the IOM, the boat carried more than 120 people, including women and children.

And in October, at least 140 migrants drowned off the coast of Senegal in what the IOM described as the deadliest shipwreck this year.
In a statement in November, the head of the Libyan IOM mission, Federico Soda, said that “the growing loss of life in the Mediterranean is a manifestation of the inability of states to take decisive action to redistribute the much-needed search and rescue capacity.” , dedicated to the deadliest sea – crossing the world “.

Soda called for a change in “the unfeasible approach of Libya and the Mediterranean, including the cessation of returns to the country and the establishment of a clear landing mechanism followed by solidarity from other states.”

“Thousands of vulnerable people continue to pay the price for inaction both at sea and on land,” he said.

Migration-related deaths are often under-reported and unrecorded, according to the IOM, which also said the pandemic made it more difficult to collect such data.

Emma Reynolds of CNN and Sharon Braithwaite contributed to this report.

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