HIBAPRESS. 40 irregular migrants died on Wednesday after their boat sank off the coast of the Mahdia governorate in Tunisia, while rescue teams managed to recover 30 survivors, according to what the judicial spokesperson Walid Shatbri told Agence France-Presse.
Shatbri explained that the incident occurred on Wednesday dawn, pointing out that initial investigations indicate that the boat was carrying about 70 people of African nationalities belonging to sub-Saharan African countries. He added: "40 bodies were recovered, including infants, and 30 others were rescued." The central Mediterranean region is considered one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world, as it has recorded the death or disappearance of more than 32,000 people since 2014, according to data from the International Organization for Migration. Tunisia and Libya have become, in recent years, among the most prominent launch points towards European coasts, especially towards the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is less than 150 kilometers from the Tunisian coast. In 2023, Tunisia signed an agreement with the European Union worth 255 million euros, nearly half of which was allocated to enhance border control and combat irregular migration, which led to a noticeable decrease in attempts to cross to Italy during the same year. However, data from the High Commissioner for Refugees indicates that since the beginning of 2025, about 55,976 migrants have arrived on the Italian coasts, with a slight increase of 2% compared to the same period last year, with the majority coming from Libya, while about 4,000 migrants departed from Tunisia. In a related context, the Tunisian authorities have begun removing informal migrant camps that were established in olive groves in the Sfax governorate, which housed approximately 20,000 people. Tunisian President Kais Saied also called, at the end of last March, on the International Organization for Migration to intensify efforts for the "voluntary return" of irregular migrants to their countries of origin, in light of the worsening phenomenon of illegal immigration and the human tragedies it causes repeatedly.
