Cairo: Darfur 24
13 Sudanese immigrants died and the search for 27 others missing off the eastern coast of Tunisia after their boat sank, according to a judicial spokesman for Agence France -Presse, on Thursday.
A spokesman for the Monastir Court, Farid bin Juha, said that 42 immigrants were launched from the coast of the Jabnana area from the Sfax Governorate (east), and two migrants were rescued and the number of missing persons increased from 17 to 27 migrants.
All of these immigrants were men, and they had asylum cards.
Bin Juha added that an investigation has been opened to determine the responsibilities, without excluding the possibility of “their exploitation in a human trafficking case or in a criminal operation to arrest Europe surreptitiously.”
Bin Juha confirmed that the operations are still ongoing to search for other migrants, and pointed out that the boat sank, on Wednesday.
In addition to Libya, Tunisia represents the main starting point for thousands of immigrants seeking to reach Europe.
Until November 2023, the Tunisian National Guard objected 69963 migrants compared to 31297 during the same period in 2022, according to statistics reported by the spokesman for the Guard, Hossam El -Din al -Jabali, as AFP earlier.
According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 2270 people died in 2023 in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach the European coasts illegally, an increase of 60% over the previous year.