May 25, (THEWILL) – A boat carrying migrants from Cameroon and some other countries from Libya to Europe, has capsized off Tunisia’s coast.
An ongoing rescue operation Wednesday, has recovered one body and dozens of people were reported missing.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said 75 people were unaccounted for and 30 others rescued, after the boat sank off Sfax in southern Tunisia.
Sfax Courts Spokesman, Mourad Turki, said those who were rescued are between 18 and 40 years old and of various nationalities, including people from Bangladesh, Egypt, Morocco and Cameroon.
Turki added that the initial numbers of those missing were provisional and could increase.
Spokesperson for the IOM, Esma Rihane, said the Tunisian navy was continuing to comb the area and search for the missing.
The boat reportedly departed from Zuwara in north Libya on Sunday night.
According to the Sfax National Guard, the boat ran aground 10 kilometres (six miles) from the island of Kerkennah, off Tunisia’s coast.
Zuwara serves as a departure point for migrants from Libya attempting to reach the Italian coast by sea.
Last July, a boat carrying 127 migrants from Zuwara sank off Zarzis, a port in southern Tunisia, leaving 43 people missing.
The central Mediterranean, which connects Libya and the Maghreb countries to Italy or Malta, is the most dangerous migration route in the world, according to the IOM.
The U.N. agency estimates that more than 1,500 people died or went missing in the area in 2021 and more than 500 so far in 2022.
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