Migrant deaths increase to 15, including three babies, after a shipwreck off the coast of Tunisia

Oct. 1 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Tunisian authorities have raised the number of dead to 15, including three babies, as a result of the capsizing of a boat carrying migrants and refugees that occurred early Monday morning off the coast of Tunisia.

The figure has been updated after search and rescue teams recovered three bodies this Tuesday night, security forces sources told the Tunisian state news agency, TAP.

The prosecutor of the Medenine Court of First Instance, Fathi al Bakush, has reported on the identification of two people related to the organization of the “illegal immigration operation”, who are at large, and has assured that a third is being verified. person. In addition, it has announced the opening of a judicial investigation in this regard.

The boat had left the coast at around 5:15 (local time) on Monday and sank off the coast of the island of Djerba. There were more than 40 people on board, most of them Tunisian nationals, explained a spokesman for the National Guard, Husemedine Jebabli. The maritime guard has rescued 29 people alive, according to the Mosaique FM station.

More than 1,100 migrants have perished this year in the waters of the central Mediterranean, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which however warns that these are conservative statistics since they assume that there are incidents that are impossible to record due to lack of information.