Tunis, May 10
At least 50 migrants drowned on Friday when their boat capsised in the Mediterranean Sea off the Tunisian coast after they had left Libya hoping to reach Europe, the United Nations migration agency said.
The state-run Tunis Afrique Presse agency gave a death toll of at least 70 people.
It was one the deadliest shipwrecks involving migrants trying to reach Europe illegally this year.
The UN’s International Organisation for Migration said the sunken boat took to the sea from neighbouring Libya, where renewed warfare between rival factions has gripped the capital Tripoli in the past five weeks. It put the number of victims at 50, with 16 survivors.
The boat sank 40 miles off the coast of Sfax, south of the capital Tunis, the Tunisian agency said. Fishing boats rescued the survivors, it said.
The Tunisian Defence Ministry said the boat had left from the Libyan port of Zouara on Thursday aiming to reach Italy. Navy units have recovered only three bodies so far, it said in a statement.
“Another tragedy in the Mediterranean,” the IOM said. Libya’s western coast is a main departure point for migrants from across Africa. — Reuters
Boat left from Libya
The Tunisian Defence Ministry said the boat had left from the Libyan port of Zouara on Thursday aiming to reach Italy.
Departure point
Libya’s western coast is a main departure point for migrants from across Africa hoping to reach Europe by paying human traffickers, though numbers have dropped due to an Italian-led effort to disrupt smuggling networks
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2VZlT7D
via Today’s News Headlines
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