The bodies of 35 migrants have been recovered off Tunisia’s southern coast, the country’s defence ministry said Sunday, revising upwards an earlier government death toll. As of 1:00 pm (1200 GMT), “35 bodies were recovered and 68 migrants rescued,” said Rachid Bouhoula, a spokesman for the ministry. The interior ministry reported a distress call on Saturday night at 10:45 pm from “a fishing boat about to sink” with migrants on board. 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: Punch June 03, 2018 14:26 UTC