Foreign News
Dozens missing in latest shipwreck off Tunisia
At least 34 refugees are missing after their boat sank off Tunisia, officials have said, the latest in a string of tragedies this month.
The boat had set off on Thursday from near Sfax and was trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Italy, Fawzi El Masmoudi, a court spokesman in the port city, said on Friday.
The incident raised the total number of missing to 67 as the number of boats heading towards Italy sharply increases.
The Italian coastguard said on Thursday that it had rescued about 750 refugees in two operations off southern Italy, hours after at least five people died and 33 went missing in an attempted sea crossing from Tunisia.
Houssem Jebabli, a Tunisian national guard official, said the coastguard had stopped 56 boats heading for Italy in two days and detained more than 3,000 refugees, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa.
According to UN data, at least 12,000 refugees who have reached Italy this year set sail from Tunisia, compared with 1,300 in the same period of 2022. Previously, Libya was the main launch pad for refugees from the region.
(Aljazeera)