Tunisia: The death toll from a shipwreck has risen to 20 dead

The death toll from the latest naval accident involving a boat carrying refugees and migrants off Tunisia on Friday has risen to 20, several of them Syrians trying to reach Italy, a senior official said. yesterday Saturday.

He explained that the Tunisian Coast Guard had retrieved eight bodies washed ashore after locating 12 days. The investigation is still ongoing, he added.

In the southern Mediterranean, Tunisia and Libya are two of the countries from which most migrants and refugees try to reach Europe to escape war or misery.

From the Tunisian coast, 15,671 migrants, including 584 women, were able to reach Italian territory in 2021, compared to 12,883 (including 353 women) in 2020, according to the Tunisian Economic and Social Rights Forum, a specialized organization specializing in post-Tunisian economics and social rights.

In all, more than 123,000 migrants and refugees arrived in Italy in 2021, up from 95,000 in 2020, amid a pandemic, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Nearly 2,000 people were reported missing or drowned in the Mediterranean last year, up from 1,401 in 2020, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The central Mediterranean is the most dangerous migration route in the world, the same source points out. The IOM, part of the UN system, estimates that more than 18,000 refugees and migrants have lost their lives or been declared missing since 2014.