Deaths of Mediterranean migrants: At least 20 migrants killed in shipwreck off the coast of Tunisia

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Coastguards rescued five people and were searching for about 20 others who were not yet being reported, the official said.

“The ship sank about six miles off the coast of Sfax. Twenty bodies were found, five others were rescued, and they are all from sub-Saharan Africa,” said security officer Ali Ayari.

There were about 45 people on board when it sank, he said.

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

Countries including Italy and Malta have seen a rise in maritime income this year from Tunisia – where high unemployment and uncertain socio-economic conditions have driven migration – and from Libya, where conflict and war were the main causes, according to figures from the United Nations. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The condition of the migrants is exacerbated by the pandemic coronavirus infection.
But European responses have often been brutal. Humanitarian organizations say border barriers in countries such as Greece, the absence of naval rescue in the Mediterranean and unhealthy quarantine coronavirus arrangements have created major challenges.

Thursday’s death adds to the list already recorded this year, even with Covid-19 travel restrictions in place.

1,111 migrants died 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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The boat was reportedly carrying more than 120 people, including women and children, according to the IOM.

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, IOM Libya’s Head of Mission Federico Soda said the “growing loss of life in the Mediterranean Sea is a testament to the inability of states to take decisive action. to mobilize special search and rescue capability needed in the deadliest sea-crossing world. “

Soda called for a change in the “unworkable approach to Libya and the Mediterranean, including an end to return to the country and a clear approach where there was close ties from other states. “

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

Immigration-related deaths are often unreported and unrecorded, according to the IOM, which also said the pandemic has made it more difficult to collect these data.

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

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