Five migrants of sub-Saharan origin drowned on Wednesday (March 22nd) and 28 others are missing after their boat sank off Tunisia, a rights group said.
"The bodies of five migrants have been found and five others have been rescued, but 28 are still missing," said Romdhane Ben Amor of the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES). He said the boat sank "because it was overloaded" with 38 passengers, mostly from Côte d'Ivoire.
The boat had left the coastal region of Sfax to try to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Inflammatory speech by the Tunisian president
The shipwreck is the latest such tragedy in the central Mediterranean, known to be the deadliest migration route in the world.
It comes a month after Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed's incendiary speech, who accused migrants from sub-Saharan Africa of representing a "conspiracy" against Tunisia and being behind a wave of crime. His comments sparked violence against black migrants and landlords, fearing fines, evicted hundreds of people now camping on the streets of Tunis.
Some 21,000 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa are present in Tunisia, a country of twelve million people, according to estimates.
With AFP
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