NEWS- At least 13 Sudanese migrants died and 27 others are believed missing after their small metal boat sank yesterday off the Tunisian coast as they tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe.
It is reported the the Tunisian Coast Guard was able to rescue two people from the capsized boat 14 kilometers off the coast of the port of Chebba and the searching for those missing is still going on.
The Regional Area spokesperson Farid Ben Jha said that the survivors told him that a total of 42 people were aboard the fateful boat and all of them were from Sudan.
They said the group had left from the coast of nearby Sfax, a common jumping-off point for illegal boat journeys across the Mediterranean to Italy and the boat sank soon after setting to sea.
Such migration attempts have increased recently from Tunisia, by both Tunisians and other people from elsewhere in Africa.
This comes after migration activists last month sounded the alarm about mass expulsions and arbitrary arrests of migrants in Tunisia, where authorities are seeing more migrants arrive for attempted Mediterranean crossings from the North African nation to Europe.
The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights cited witness accounts indicating the situation had become particularly dire around Tunisia’s borders with Libya and Algeria as well as around Sfax, the country’s second most populous city, located 117 miles from the Italian Island of Lampedusa.
