Four migrant boats capsize off Tunisia, 17 dead

Tunisian government has recovered the bodies of 17 migrants after four boats looking to cross the Mediterranean Sea heading for Europe capsized, a court legit stated on Sunday.

“The makeshift boats were in a bad circumstance” and had set sail in a single day Friday to Saturday from the Mediterranean port city of Sfax, said Mourad Turki, spokesman for the courtroom there.

The sufferers blanketed a lady and “as a minimum one baby”, he said, including that he feared the loss of life toll may want to upward push.

Survivors have said “there were between 30 and 32 people onboard each boat”, said Turki.

The majority of those who attempted the latest deadly crossing were sub-Saharan Africans, including citizens of Ivory Coast, Mali and Somalia, he added.

Tunisia and neighboring Libya are key departure points for migrants seeking to reach European shores, often in vessels that are barely seaworthy.

The Italian island of Lampedusa is only about 130 kilometers (80 miles) from Tunisia’s coast.

Libyan authorities on Sunday arrested 542 would-be migrants preparing to depart for Europe in inflatable boats, a security source said.

An AFP photographer said most were originally from Bangladesh.

The International Organization for Migration has said that nearly 2,000 migrants drowned or went missing in the Mediterranean in 2021, compared to 1,401 the previous year.

It is the world’s deadliest migration route, but people hoping to build a better life in Europe increasingly risk it.

On Saturday, an overloaded migrant boat capsized off north Lebanon with a least six people dead, including a little girl.

The boat carried almost 60 people and Lebanese naval forces have been able to rescue 28 of them, the army has said.

Lebanon is in the grips of an exceptional economic disaster, with the currency losing greater than ninety percent of its value and the general public of the population dwelling under the poverty line.