Official Italian sources revealed that a large number of irregular immigrants had arrived on an Italian island close to the Tunisian coast, while the coast of Tunisia recorded a new incident of drowning of African immigrants, claiming dozens of lives.
The Italian news agency ANSA said that about 1,350 people arrived on the island of Lampedusa on boats from North Africa within 24 hours.
The agency added that from midnight last night until Thursday morning, about 900 people arrived on the island on 21 boats.
The migrants - who are from African countries, Syria and Yemen - began their journey from the city of Sfax (eastern Tunisia), according to ANSA.
Lampedusa is located between Sicily and Tunisia, about 190 km from Sfax.
The arrival of these irregular migrants comes 10 days after the death of 72 irregular migrants after their boat sank off the coast of Calabria (southern Italy).
After the boat sinking off the coast of Calabria, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni pledged to tackle irregular migration across the sea so that no more tragedies would happen.
Irregular migrants rescued by the Tunisian Coast Guard near the coast of Sfax (Reuters)
A boat sank off the coast of Tunisia
In another development, the Tunisian National Guard announced today the recovery of 14 bodies and the rescue of 54 African nationalities after their boat sank off the Tunisian coast.
A spokesman for the National Guard said - in a statement - that the Naval Guard units in Sfax found, while combing the coasts, a group whose boat had sunk, and began rescue operations and the recovery of the bodies.
In another statement, the spokesman stated that the Naval Guard units thwarted, on Wednesday evening, 14 attempts at irregular migration.
This incident comes while a large number of immigrants want to leave Tunisia after statements described as "racist" by Tunisian President Qais Saeed.
The Tunisian authorities estimate the number of irregular African migrants in the country at about 21,000.
The Tunisian president's statements sparked condemnatory reactions from the African Union and international organizations, and American and international concern, which prompted the authorities to announce measures to provide protection for those migrants.
Italy is a major destination for irregular migration across the Mediterranean.
Since 2014, more than 20,000 migrants have died or gone missing in the central Mediterranean, according to the International Organization for Migration.