A crowded migrant boat sank Wednesday off the coast of Tunisia, leaving 75 people missing and at least one person dead.
According to the International Migrant Organization (IOM), 24 people were rescued from the boat.
A Tunisian security official informed Reuters that the coastguard had recovered a body.
The boat reportedly left Zuwara in Northern Libya Sunday night carrying migrants from different nationalities before sinking off the coast of Sfax.
The Sfax National Guard said the boat ran aground six miles from the island of Kerkennah, off Tunisia’s coast.
The Tunisian Navy is continuing to search the area for the missing people. Sfax courts spokesman Mourad Turki said that the number of missing people might increase from the initial 75, as that was a provisional number.
This is just the latest incident where a migrant boat sank while attempting to cross from Tunisia and Libya towards Italy. Over the past few years, hundreds of thousands of people have made the dangerous Mediterranean crossing.
Data from from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) showed that more than 123,000 migrants arrived in Italy in 2021, compared to more than 95,000 in 2020.
