27 Sub-Saharan Migrants Die in Shipwreck Off Tunisia
Migrants rescued in the Mediterranean, Jan. 2, 2025. X/ @LBCI_News_EN
January 2, 2025 Hour: 7:55 am
Authorities managed to save 83 people after the sinking of two precarious boats.
In the past 24 hours, the Tunisian National Guard and Civil Protection recovered 27 bodies of migrants and rescued 83 people after the sinking of two precarious boats in the Mediterranean carrying 110 citizens from sub-Saharan countries.
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The regional director of Civil Protection in Sfax, Zied Sdiri, stated that the first boat capsized, while the second sank three nautical miles off the Kerkennah Islands in Sfax (central Tunisia).
The number of deaths and disappearances of people attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea in 2024 exceeded 2,200, with 1,700 lives lost on the central Mediterranean route alone, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“Among these victims are hundreds of girls, boys, and adolescents. In fact, one in five of all those migrating across the Mediterranean are minors,” said Regina De Dominicis, director of UNICEF’s Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia and Special Coordinator for the Refugee and Migrant Response in Europe.
Arrivals in Italy from Tunisia and Libya dropped by 58% in 2024 compared to the previous year when more than 155,000 people landed on Italian shores, following the signing of a memorandum between the European Union and Tunisian authorities that intensified maritime interceptions.
On Sunday, the National Guard rescued 19 Tunisians during the intervention of a disabled boat in the Mediterranean, and on Monday, December 30, they saved another 17 Tunisians after their vessel sank. Additionally, Tunisian security forces announced the arrest of four individuals involved in the transport of migrants to Europe.
On Thursday, Italian authorities continue the search for 20 missing persons, including five women and three children, off the coast of Lampedusa. Among the survivors is an eight-year-old Syrian boy who lost his mother in the shipwreck.
Libya ended the past year as the main departure point on the Central Mediterranean route, with 41,484 of the 65,474 migrants arriving in Italy departing from there, according to data from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE
