Eleven bodies have been recovered after a boat carrying Tunisian migrants sank off the country’s coast while attempting to reach Italy, Tunisia’s National Guard said on Sunday.
Three people remain missing as coastguard, military and civil protection teams continue search operations, supported by two helicopters.
The boat left Tunisia early on Thursday carrying 15 people, most of them young, according to migrant rights activists. Only one person was rescued alive after reportedly spending about 48 hours adrift at sea before being picked up by a commercial vessel.
The head of the Tunisian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters that seven of those on board were members of the same family. Another passenger was travelling with his pregnant wife.
All the migrants were from Ben Guerdane in southeastern Tunisia, near the Libyan border. Dozens of young people gathered in the town on Saturday night to demand faster search operations. Police used teargas to disperse the protesters.
The central Mediterranean remains one of the world’s deadliest migration routes, with migrants from Africa and the Middle East often attempting to reach Europe in overcrowded or unseaworthy boats.
The tragedy comes amid continued criticism of the migration agreement between Tunisia and the European Union. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other human rights and humanitarian organisations said last month that the agreement had contributed to the normalisation of serious abuses against migrants and asylum seekers in Tunisia.
