Eight bodies of migrants have been recovered over the past two days off the coast of the Tunisian port city of Sfax after their boats sank trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea toward Europe, according to Sfax court's spokesperson. On Thursday, National Guard spokesperson Houssameddine Jbabli reported that four bodies had been recovered by the coastguard off Mahdia, another port city north of Sfax, as three boats carrying a total of 176 illegal Tunisian and sub-Saharan migrants were intercepted. Jbabli told public television Wataniya 1 that several migrants attacked the coastguard units, using knives and Molotov cocktails, as they were trying to bring them back to a Tunisian port aboard a frigate. In an interview on Wednesday with the Associated Press, Interior Minister Kamel Fekih said 901 bodies of migrants have been recovered by the Tunisian coastguard this year through July 20. Fekih conceded that small groups of sub-Saharan migrants trying to enter the country are pushed back into the desert border areas with Libya and Algeria, but labeled as “false allegations” claims by the U.N., humanitarian groups and migrants themselves of mistreatment.

Source: The North Africa Journal August 06, 2023 17:51 UTC