Tunisia (Union)
Tunisian coast guards have recovered the bodies of five migrant women and a child off the eastern coast of Tunisia, a judicial spokesman said yesterday.
The official spokesman for the Monastir and Mahdia courts, Farid bin Jaha, said that the rescue operation took place the day before yesterday, and included 5 women and a girl between the ages of two and three years, off the coast of Monastir Governorate.
The judicial spokesman added, “The forensic doctor believes that the bodies drowned about a week ago, and they most likely belong to immigrants from sub-Saharan African countries.”
An investigation was opened to determine the details of the incident and determine whether it was an act of migration or human trafficking, according to the same source.
Some countries in North Africa have become a major departure point for migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, with the nearest Italian coastline being about 150 kilometres from the Tunisian coast.
More than 1,300 migrants died or went missing in 2023 in boat sinkings off the Tunisian coast, according to official Tunisian statistics.
Between the beginning of this year and mid-May, 103 migrant boats sank, according to the Tunisian Ministry of Interior.
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