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At least 41 migrants retrieved dead off Tunisia

The bodies of 41 migrants, including at least one child, who were trying to reach Europe from the Tunisian coast were recovered in the Mediterranean after the sinking of their makeshift boat, the United Nations said on Friday.

At least one child among the victims 

Only three people were able to be rescued by the Tunisian coast guard after the shipwreck on Thursday evening of the boat off Sidi Mansour, in south-eastern Tunisia, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a joint statement. (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

“The bodies of 41 people, including at least one child, have so far been found,” it said, adding that all were from sub-Saharan Africa.

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20 dead at sea Thursday 

Earlier on Friday, the maritime guard in Sfax, in eastern Tunisia, had reported 20 dead, “eleven men, eight women, and a baby recovered Thursday off Sfax”, and 17 carried missing. 

The bodies were transported to the mortuary of the regional hospital in that city, said maritime guard spokesman Ali Ayari. The search was halted Friday due to bad weather, and is scheduled to resume on Saturday, Ayari said.

These candidates for this very dangerous crossing had left Thursday at dawn from the coasts of Sidi Mansour in Sfax, the daily starting point for the last two years of these attempts to rally Europe.

This tragedy “once again underlines the need to improve and expand search and rescue operations carried out by states in the central Mediterranean, where some 290 people have died since the start of the year,” said UNHCR and IOM.

According to figures from the organization, the number of crossings from Tunisia to Europe has more than tripled compared to the same period last year. At least 292 migrants have died since January 1, 2021, in the Mediterranean, and 1,200 in 2020, the vast majority of them on this central route, according to the UN.

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