Ten migrants from sub-Saharan Africa drown off Tunisian coast

Seventy-six rescued after their boat was wrecked in Mediterranean, near Sfax

Migrants outside the offices of the International Organisation for Migration in Tunis on Wednesday. AFP

Ten migrants trying to reach Europe from sub-Saharan Africa drowned off the coast of Tunisia after their boat was wrecked in the Mediterranean, the coastguard said on Wednesday.

"Coastguard units in Sfax and Tunis rescued 76 migrants, and 10 migrant bodies have been recovered after a boat sank offshore," National Guard spokesman Houssem Jebabli said on Wednesday.

The dead were all from sub-Saharan Africa, Mr Jebabli added.

The first three months of the year were the deadliest first quarter for migrants crossing the central Mediterranean since 2017, the UN said on Wednesday, with 441 lives lost attempting to reach Europe.

“The persisting humanitarian crisis in the central Mediterranean is intolerable,” said Antonio Vitorino, head of the UN’s International Organisation for Migration.

“With more than 20,000 deaths recorded on this route since 2014, I fear that these deaths have been normalised.”

The IOM said delays in such rescues were a factor in at least six incidents this year, leading to the deaths of at least 127 people.

"The complete absence of response to a seventh case claimed the lives of at least 73 migrants," it said in a statement, adding that non-government organisations' search-and-rescue efforts have markedly diminished in recent months.

"Over the Easter weekend, 3,000 migrants reached Italy, bringing the total number of arrivals so far this year to 31,192," the IOM said.

The UN agency's Missing Migrants Project is also investigating several reports of cases in which boats are reported missing, where there are no records of survivors, no remains and no search-and-rescue operations.

The fates of more than 300 people aboard those vessels is unclear, the organisation said.

"Saving lives at sea is a legal obligation for states," Mr Vitorino said.

People fleeing conflict or poverty routinely take boats from Tunisia towards Europe, even though the central Mediterranean is the most dangerous migration route in the world, according to the IOM. Many are from sub-Saharan Africa.

In late March, the bodies of 29 sub-Saharan African migrants were retrieved from Tunisian waters after three separate shipwrecks.

The number of such voyages has risen after Tunisian President Kais Saied in February ordered officials to take "urgent measures" to tackle irregular immigration.

Mr Saied charged, without evidence, that a "criminal plot" was under way to change Tunisia's demographic makeup, sparking a wave of evictions and violence against black migrants.

Tunisian police on Tuesday used tear gas to disperse homeless migrants who had been protesting outside the office of the UN refugee agency to demand their return to their home countries.

Tunisia's coastguard said last week that it had intercepted more than 14,000 migrants on their way to Europe between January and March – five times more than in the first quarter of 2022.

On Monday, German aid group ResQship reported that at least two migrants died and about 20 were missing after their vessel sank in the Mediterranean between Tunisia and Italy.

The group's ship, the Nadir, rescued 22 people and took them to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Among those rescued were men, women and children from Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Mali. A pregnant woman was among them.

The boat's crew also recovered the bodies of two men.

About 40 migrants were on the boat when it left Sfax in Tunisia, said Stefan Seyfert of ResQship.