About 30 people have died when two boats sank off the coast of Tunisia. The boats sank for hours on end. At least nineteen people were killed in the first and at least ten in the second.
Migrants from Africa were in the first boat. The local coastguard has not yet said anything about the origin of the occupants of the second boat, but most migrants who want to make the dangerous crossing to Italy come from sub-Saharan Africa.
In the last four days, five boats carrying people on their way to Italy from the city of Sfax have already sunk. Dozens of people are still missing. The city of Sfax is often used as a starting point for the crossing to Italy. The Italian island of Lampedusa is 185 kilometers away.
More than eighty boats have been stopped in recent days. More than 3,000 migrants have been arrested for trying to cross illegally to Italy, mainly from central and southern Africa.
According to data from the United Nations, at least 12,000 people have already gone to Italy via Tunisia this year, which was about 1,300 migrants in the same period last year. Tunisia’s coast guard is said to have stopped about 14,000 more migrants.
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