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29 die in boat sinkings off Tunisia

TUNIS — Tunisia’s Coast Guard has retrieved 29 bodies of illegal immigrants after two boats sank off Tunisian coasts, the Tunisian National Guard said on Sunday.

Houcemeddine Jbabli, spokesman for the Tunisian National Guard, told Xinhua News Agency by phone that the two boats sank on Saturday night off the coast of Sfax Province in southeastern Tunisia and Mahdia coast in the east.

“The Tunisian Coast Guard units in Mahdia managed last night to retrieve 27 bodies of illegal immigrants after their boat sank while trying to cross the Mediterranean toward the Italian coast,” Jbabli said.

“Two bodies of illegal immigrants were retrieved off the coast of Sfax.”

A total of 11 immigrants of subSaharan African nationalities were rescued during the operations, and the search for the missing, the number of which was not specified, is still underway, he said.

Jbabli emphasized that those immigrants were trying to cross the Mediterranean toward the Italian island of Lampedusa.

People fleeing poverty or violence in West Africa and other parts of the continent have used Tunisia for years as a springboard for often perilous attempts to reach safety and better lives in Europe.

Lampedusa is just 150 kilometers off the Tunisian coast, part of the Central Mediterranean route described by the United Nations as the most deadly in the world.

Rome has pressured the Tunisian authorities to rein in the flow of people, and has helped beef up the Coast Guard, which rights groups accuse of violence.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned on Friday that Tunisia’s “serious financial problems” risked sparking a “migratory wave” toward Europe.

She also confirmed plans for a mission to the North African country involving Italian and French foreign ministers.

Tunisia is in the throes of a longrunning socioeconomic crisis, with spiraling inflation and persistently high joblessness. Tunisians themselves make up a large proportion of the migrants traveling to Italian shores.

The heavily indebted North African country is in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a $2-billion bailout package, but talks have been stalled for months and there is no sign a deal is any closer.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned last week that unless they reach an agreement, “the economy risks falling off the deep end”.

WORLD

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2023-03-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://chinadaily.pressreader.com/article/281822878052999

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