- Eleven bodies have been recovered after a migrant boat sank off Tunisia
- Three people remain missing as rescue teams continue searching
- The boat was carrying 15 Tunisians travelling towards Italy
Tunisia’s coastguard has recovered 11 bodies following the sinking of a boat carrying Tunisian migrants who were attempting to reach Italy, authorities said on Sunday.
Eko Hot Blog gathered that three people remain missing, with coastguard, military and civil protection teams continuing search operations along the Tunisian coast.
Two helicopters have also been deployed to support the rescue effort.
The boat reportedly departed early Thursday carrying 15 people, most of them young, before sinking off the Tunisian coastline.
A migrant rights activist said on Saturday that only one person had been rescued alive. The survivor reportedly spent about 48 hours drifting at sea before being picked up by a commercial vessel.
According to the head of the Tunisian Observatory for Human Rights, seven members of one family were among those aboard the vessel. Another passenger was reportedly travelling with his pregnant wife.
All the migrants were from Ben Guerdane in southeastern Tunisia, near the Libyan border.
Following the incident, dozens of young residents gathered in the town late Saturday to demand that authorities intensify efforts to locate the missing passengers. Police reportedly used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.
The central Mediterranean remains one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world, with migrants from Africa and the Middle East regularly attempting to cross the sea to Europe in overcrowded or poorly equipped vessels.
The latest tragedy has also renewed criticism of Tunisia’s cooperation with the European Union on migration control.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other humanitarian organisations said last month that the EU-Tunisia migration agreement had contributed to the normalisation of serious abuses against migrants and asylum seekers in Tunisia.
The organisations urged the European Union to halt funding for migration management and border-control operations involving Tunisian security forces.
