5th boat to sink in two days leaves 34 migrants missing

• Raven Ruma
• . March 25, 2023
• . Update: March 25, 2023 5:42 pm
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According to Tunisian officials, at least 34 African migrants went missing on Friday after their boat capsized off the coast of Tunisia. This catastrophe was the seventh in the past two days, and it brought the overall number of missing migrants to 67.

Hours after at least five individuals perished and 33 went missing during an attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Tunisia, the Italian coast guard announced on Thursday that it had saved approximately 750 migrants in two separate operations off the southern Italian coastline.

Seven people, including infants and children, died when the boat capsized off the shore of the city of Sfax, according to Tunisian Judge Faouzi Masmoudi.

A National Guard official, Houssem Jebabli, reported that in just two days, the Coast Guard stopped 56 boats going for Italy and apprehended more than 3,000 migrants, the majority of them were from sub-Saharan African countries.

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In contrast to the same period in 2022, when only 1,300 migrants arrived in Italy from Tunisia, at least 12,000 have done so this year. Prior to now, Libya served as the primary departure point for migrants from the area.

People fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East in search of a chance at a better life in Europe increasingly leave from the shoreline of Sfax.

After President Kais Saied took the majority of the country’s power in July 2021, shutting down parliament and establishing rule by decree, Tunisia has been engulfed in political unrest.

If Tunisia’s financial stability is not preserved, Europe runs the risk of seeing a massive influx of migrants from North Africa, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday. Meloni urged the IMF and a few nations to assist Tunisia right away in order to prevent its demise. He warned that “we risk unleashing an unprecedented wave of migration” if we do not appropriately address those issues.