Dozens missing in latest shipwreck off Tunisia

 

 
At least 34 refugees are missing after their boat sank off Tunisia, officials have said, the latest in a string of tragedies this month.
The boat had set off Thursday from near Sfax and was trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Italy, Fawzi El Masmoudi, a court spokesman in the port city, said on Friday.
The incident raised the total number of missing to 67 as the number of boats heading towards Italy sharply increases.The Italian coastguard said on Thursday that it had rescued about 750 refugees in two operations off southern Italy, hours after at least five people died and 33 went missing in an attempted sea crossing from Tunisia.
Houssem Jebabli, a Tunisian national guard official, said the coastguard had stopped 56 boats heading for Italy in two days and detained more than 3,000 refugees, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa.
According to UN data, at least 12,000 refugees who have reached Italy this year set sail from Tunisia, compared with 1,300 in the same period of 2022. Previously, Libya was the main launch pad for refugees from the region.
The coastline of Sfax has become a major departure point for people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East and seeking a better life in Europe.
Sub-Saharan Africans residing in Tunisia have been living in fear since an incendiary speech by President Kais Saied last month in which he accused them of representing a demographic threat and causing a crime wave.
In the days after Saied’s comments, which human rights groups criticised as “racist hate speech”, security forces started a campaign to expel undocumented people living in Tunisia.
Refugees also reported an upsurge in racist attacks and many were evicted from their homes by landlords fearing large fines or prison sentences for housing them.
Some working informally in construction and other sectors also lost their jobs.
The North African country’s population of 12 million is home to an estimated 21,000 refugees from other parts of Africa, representing 0.2 percent of the population.