A new tragedy off Tunisia. Five Tunisian migrants are dead and seven other migrants are missing after the sinking of a makeshift boat that left the coast of Sfax in central-eastern Tunisia on Monday morning, the Sfax court said.
The boat on which they embarked “35 people, mostly Tunisians”including women and children, capsized “shortly after his departure”said Faouzi Masmoudi, spokesperson for the court, specifying that “23 people were rescued”. “A child and two women are among those who died”, he added. According to him, “the sinking occurred less than an hour after the departure from Sidi Mansour”a locality known as a starting point for illegal emigration.
Since the beginning of the year, Sfax has been the epicenter of attempts to cross the Mediterranean illegally from the Tunisian coast, located, at the closest point, less than 130 kilometers from the Italian island of Lampedusa.
The Sfax court has opened an investigation to determine the causes of the accident. “It is possible that the boat was carrying a small number of nationals from sub-Saharan Africa and that they are among the missing”detailed the spokesperson, stressing that the search for possible survivors continues.
Another shipwreck occurred in the night from Friday to Saturday just 120 meters from the coast, in Gabes, a port city located about 150 kilometers south of Sfax. A young 20-year-old Tunisian perished in this tragedy as well as an infant whose parents are among the thirteen people rescued, all Tunisians. Five other Tunisians are still missing.
Hate speech and migrants deported to the desert
More than 1,800 people, more than double last year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), have perished since January in shipwrecks in the central Mediterranean (between North Africa and Italy); it is the deadliest migration route in the world.
Departures of African migrants accelerated after a speech in February by Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed denouncing the arrival of “hordes of migrants” illegal immigrants, who came, according to him, “changing the demographic composition” from his country. In July, many more attempted the crossing after hundreds of Africans were driven out of Sfax, following the death of a Tunisian on July 3 in a brawl between migrants and locals.
More than 2,000 other Africans were at the same time “expelled” by the security forces to desert and uninhabited areas on the borders with Libya to the east and Algeria to the west, according to humanitarian sources. A total of 27 people died in the Tunisian-Libyan desert, and 73 others are missing, according to these sources.