A boat carrying some 86 irregular migrants capsized off the coast of Tunisia on Thursday after it set sail from the Libyan coast and was headed by Italy, a Tunisian Red Crescent source told the island.
The source added that the boat sailed from Libya. A Tunisian fishing boat managed to rescue four migrants who were on board the boat and were taken to the Tunisian Red Cross headquarters in Zarzis, southern Tunisia. One of them died later, while the others were considered missing.
Al-Jazeera correspondent in Tunis Saifuddin Boualak said the boat was launched from the Libyan Zouara area towards the Italian coast, but sank off the coast of Zarzis. The Tunisian Crescent managed to save three million and another from Ivory Coast and transfer them to hospital, but the last immigrant died.
Drowned
An official spokesman for the Tunisian crescent said naval boats were hiding the wreckage, but there was still no official information on bodies recovered.
At least 65 migrants drowned in May when their boat overturned off the Tunisian coast after sailing from Libya in the hope of reaching Europe.
Some observers in Tunisia blamed EU countries for moral and humanitarian responsibility for the sinking of migrants' boats because they did not provide assistance to other countries to improve their economies and prevent their people from irregular migration or failure to help save irregular migrants, the correspondent added.
The Tunisian coasts annually witness the arrival of hundreds of irregular migrants after the sinking of their boats in the Mediterranean, especially in the summer, and sheltering migrants and refugees in their own shelters in the province of Medenine, south of Tunisia.