According to a security official, the coast guard of Tunisia recovered 10 bodies from a migrant boat that sank close to the shore, making it the second boat to go down off the coast of Tunisia in as many hours.
A national guard officer named Houssem Jebabli stated that the boat sank off the coast of Mahdia without providing any additional information.
A human rights organisation reported earlier on Sunday that at least 19 migrants and refugees from sub-Saharan Africa had perished while attempting to traverse the Mediterranean Sea to Italy.
According to Romdhane Ben Amor, a representative of the Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES), the deaths also happened when a boat transporting the migrants and refugees capsized off the coast of Mahdia after setting out from the beaches of Sfax.
He claimed that five people were rescued from the boat by the Tunisian coast patrol.
The Tunisian government did not quickly respond to requests for comment.
Over 2,000 asylum seekers landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa in less than a day, according to the ANSA news agency, at the same time as reports of the deaths.
The service called the Saturday arrivals “record-breaking.”
At least five boats transporting migrants and refugees have sunk in the last four days off the southern city of Sfax, leaving 67 people missing and nine people dead.
In the previous four days, the coast guard claimed to have stopped about 80 boats headed for Italy and detained more than 3,000 individuals, the majority of whom were from sub-Saharan African nations.
People escaping poverty and war in Africa and the Middle East in search of a better life in Europe increasingly leave from the coast near Sfax.
The most recent catastrophe occurs as sub-Saharan Africans without documentation are being detained by Tunisian officials.
In contrast to the same time in 2022, when only 1,300 people arrived in Italy from Tunisia, at least 12,000 people did so this year.
Historically, Libya served as the primary entry point for migrants and refugees.
FTDES statistics show that more than 14,000 refugees and migrants were stopped from leaving Tunisia by the coast guard during the first three months of this year, as opposed to 2,900 during the same time last year.
On Thursday, the Italian coast guard reported that over 750 asylum seekers had been saved in two operations off the southern Italian shore.
Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister of Italy, warned on Friday that if Tunisia’s financial security is not protected, a massive influx of refugees and migrants could reach Europe’s shores from North Africa.
Meloni urged the International Monetary Fund and a few nations to assist Tunisia right away in order to prevent its demise.
