Fourteen migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have drowned off the coast of Tunisia, the coastguard said on Thursday. The Tunisian authorities said that they discovered a sunken boat from which they rescued 54 people of various sub-Saharan African nationalities. The authorities recovered 14 dead bodies from the spot.
“Coast guard patrols last night intercepted a group whose boat had sunk, rescuing 54 people of various sub-Saharan African nationalities, and recovering 14 bodies,” the authority said in a statement.
Last month, Tunis President Kais Saied ordered officials to take “urgent measures” to tackle irregular migration, claiming that “a criminal plot” was underway to change Tunisia’s demography. He claimed that migrants were behind most crime in the North African country.
Earlier on Thursday, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson called Tunisian president’s statements on African migrants “worrying” but added the EU will continue to cooperate with this “key country” to prevent illegal immigration to Europe.
Tunisia, whose coast lies just 150 kilometres (90 miles) from the Italian island of Lampedusa, has long been a transit for people fleeing war and poverty elsewhere in Africa, often on boats.
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Tunisia reportedly hosts around 21,000 undocumented migrants from other parts of Africa, less than 0.2 percent of the population.
Rome said in February that more than 32,000 migrants, including 18,000 Tunisians, reached Italy from Tunisia last year, while thousands more have departed from neighbouring Libya.
Meanwhile, The Tunis president on Wednesday denied he was racist, saying he had African friends and slamming the “malicious remarks” of those who “wanted to interpret the speech as they saw fit to harm Tunisia”.
“I am African and I am proud to be African,” President Kais Saied said after a meeting with Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, who is chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
(With inputs from agencies)
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