Tunisia migrant death toll rises to at least 35: Defence ministry
The Tunisian national guard and navy units found the ship about 30 kilometres off shore after receiving a distress call at around midnight on Saturday.
Published: 03rd June 2018 04:40 PM | Last Updated: 03rd June 2018 07:16 PM | A+A A-
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TUNIS: The bodies of 35 migrants have been recovered off Tunisia's southern coast, the country's defence ministry said Sunday, revising upwards an earlier toll.
As of 1300 local time (1200 GMT), "35 bodies were recovered and 68 migrants rescued," a spokesman for the defence ministry told AFP.
The interior ministry had earlier said the bodies of 11 migrants had been recovered and 67 people rescued off the coast of Sfax province after the navy and national guard responded to a distress call from a boat that was "about to sink.
Those rescued from the fishing vessel off the coast of southern Sfax province included "Tunisians and foreigners", it said citing an initial toll.
The Tunisian national guard and navy units found the ship about 30 kilometres off shore after receiving a distress call at around midnight on Saturday.
The ministry said search operations, with the help of military aircraft and divers, were ongoing.
Tunisians and migrants regularly try to cross the Mediterranean to seek a better future in Europe, but departures peaked last September.
According to NGOs, the uptick reflected frustration among young people hard hit by unemployment.
In October, a collision between a migrant boat and a Tunisian military ship left at least 44 dead, in what Prime Minister Youssef Chahed called a "national disaster".
