Tunisian coast guards have retrieved 11 bodies of undocumented immigrants after their boat sank off the eastern coastal province of Mahdia, the Tunisian National Guard said Thursday via its Facebook account.
“The Coast Guard units on Wednesday received a distress call about a boat being damaged at sea and water ingress on board,” it said.
The boat was carrying immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa who tried to cross the Mediterranean illegally toward the Italian island of Lampedusa, it said, noting that 27 immigrants were rescued, given necessary aid, and then transported to nearby ports for further medical care, registration, and legal processing.
The search for the missing, the number of whom was not specified, is still underway, it added.
Located in the central Mediterranean, Tunisia is one of the most popular transit points for illegal immigration to Europe. ■