Europe 1 with AFP 15:44 pm, March 26, 2023

On Sunday, at least 29 migrants from sub-Saharan African countries drowned when three boats sank off Tunisia. The coast guard found 29 bodies and "rescued eleven illegal migrants of several African nationalities after their boats capsized" off the coast of east-central Tunisia.

At least 29 migrants from sub-Saharan African countries have drowned when three boats sank off Tunisia, the coast guard said Sunday. Twenty-nine bodies were recovered and the coast guard "rescued eleven illegal migrants of several African nationalities after their boats sank" off the coast of east-central Tunisia, according to a statement that reported three separate shipwrecks.

A Tunisian trawler has recovered 19 bodies after a boat sank 58 kilometres offshore. A coast guard patrol found eight bodies off the coastal town of Mahdia and rescued 11 migrants whose boat bound for Italy capsized, while trawlers recovered two more bodies.

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A campaign against illegal immigrants

Dozens of migrants have died in a series of shipwrecks and others have gone missing since President Kais Saied's violent speech on 21 February on illegal immigration. After this speech, many of the 21,000 sub-Saharan African nationals officially registered in Tunisia, most of them in an irregular situation, had lost their jobs, usually informal, and their homes overnight because of the campaign against illegal immigrants.

Most African migrants arrive in Tunisia and then attempt to immigrate illegally by sea to Europe, with parts of Tunisia's coastline within 150 kilometres of the Italian island of Lampedusa.

>> READ ALSO - Franco-British summit: London and Paris reach agreement on migrants

A "very dangerous" situation

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called Friday in Brussels to support Tunisia, facing a serious financial crisis, or risk "triggering an unprecedented wave of migration" to Europe. She also confirmed a plan for an Italian-French mission in Tunisia in which the Italian and French Foreign Ministers would participate. The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, warned on 20th March that the situation in Tunisia was "very dangerous", even evoking a risk of "collapse" of the State likely to "provoke migratory flows towards the European Union. Tunis rejected the analysis, calling it "disproportionate".