Tunis: At least 27 migrants, including women and children, were killed when two boats capsized in central Tunisia, with 83 rescued, a civil defense official told AFP on Thursday.
Zaid Suderi, head of civil defense in the nearby city of Sfax, said the rescued and dead passengers, who were found on the Kirkenes, were all intended to reach Europe and were from sub-Saharan African countries.
Tunisia, along with neighboring Libya, is a major point of departure for irregular migrants seeking to reach Europe for a better life. The Italian island of Lampedusa is only 150 km from Tunisia.
A total of 110, the migrants were on two makeshift boats that “set off from the coast near Sfax between December 31 and January 1,” a National Guard official said on condition of anonymity.
The search for other possible missing passengers is still on, the official said.
Suderi said 15 of the 83 rescued were taken to hospital, without giving further details.
The National Guard, which oversees the Coast Guard, later confirmed the death toll in a statement, adding that a child was among the dead.
It was the latest such tragedy in Tunisia over the past month.
On December 31, the National Guard said two Tunisian migrants, one a five-year-old, died when their boat capsized off the northern coast of Tunisia.