A spokesman for the court in Sfax, in the center-east of the country, told AFP, Saturday, April 8, that twenty migrants from sub-Saharan Africa are missing after a ship sank off the Tunisian coast, and that 17 others have been rescued. .
According to testimonies collected by the justice system, which opened an investigation, these 37 immigrants were They left the coast when their boat was wrecked Friday afternoon. Spokesman Fawzi al-Masmoudi said only 17 could be rescued.
sequel after announcement
In Tunisia, “the regime is hardening to stay in power and can only get stiffer.”
This is at least the sixth shipwreck since the beginning of March, according to Agence France-Presse statistics, and these accidents off the Tunisian coast left at least a hundred dead and missing. The spokesman said that he was informed on Friday evening of the new drowning incident and opened an investigation into the circumstances of the accident.
Increased departures since Qais Saeed’s speech
And the National Guard announced Friday that it had either rescued or intercepted “14,406 people, including 13,138 from sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest are Tunisians.”during the first three months of the year, more than five times the number recorded for the same period in 2022. The numbers for 2023 are “Very sharp rise because there are more departures”National Guard spokesman Hossam Jababli told AFP.
Almost all interceptions and rescues in 2023 took place in the regions of Sfax, the country’s second city.
Tunisia, the first Arab democracy, is now on the brink of bankruptcy
Tunisia, some parts of the coast of which are less than 150 kilometers from the Italian island of Lampedusa, regularly records attempts by migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, to leave for Italy.
The exodus intensified after a violent speech by Tunisian President Kais Saied on February 21st, in which he criticized illegal immigration.
