By Biran Gaye
The central Mediterranean is among the world’s deadliest migration routes [File: AP]
A migrant boat that departed from Sfax in km 19 inTunisia had capsized off the coast of the North African country, with dozens of people reported dead, says a migrant activist.
The boat left Sfax on Thursday, 7 November
According to Muhammed Drammeh, 48 people including 15 women and 3 children of sub-Sahara African origin were on board the pirogue.
At least 14 migrants have reportedly died while 16 are missing including a woman and her baby, Drammeh says. The number of survivors is still unknown but activists say 1 migrant has survived the shipwreck.
Migrants, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, continue to board pirogues at the coast of Sfax in Tunisia in their attempt to get to Italy, with tens of thousands of migrants getting intercepted at sea by the North African coast guards and others reaching their destinations or capsizing off the Mediterranean.
Those intercepted are trapped in an increasingly violent limbo in camps in Tunisia, blocked from reaching Europe but too poor to go home, and facing backlash from local residents.
Tunisia and Libya have become key departure points for refugees and migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, who often risk dangerous sea journeys across the Mediterranean to seek a better life in Europe.
More than 1,300 people died or disappeared last year in shipwrecks off Tunisia, according to the rights group Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights.
