The bodies of 11 migrants have been recovered and 67 others rescued after their boat began sinking off Tunisia’s southern coast, the interior ministry said Sunday. Those rescued from the fishing vessel off the coast of southern Sfax province included “Tunisians and foreigners”, it said citing an initial toll. The Tunisian national guard and navy units found the ship about 30 kilometres off shore after receiving a distress call at around midnight on Saturday. Tunisians and migrants regularly try to cross the Mediterranean to seek a better future in Europe, but departures peaked last September. In October, a collision between a migrant boat and a Tunisian military ship left at least 44 dead, in what Prime Minister Youssef Chahed called a “national disaster”.

Source: The Guardian June 03, 2018 11:03 UTC