Including 17 Syrians.. Dozens of migrants rescued off the coast of Tunisia
The Tunisian Coast Guard rescued dozens of migrants, including Syrians, Sudanese and Egyptians, after their boat broke down off the southern coast of Zarzis, Medenine Governorate, southeast of Tunisia.
The head of the “Red Crescent” branch in the Medenine Governorate, Mongi Selim, said that the coast guard rescued 95 irregular migrants, who were on board a boat that set off Thursday from the Libyan city of Sabratha towards the European coast, but it was disrupted near the coast of Zarzis.
Among the immigrants, Selim added, 59 are from Sudan, 17 from Syria, seven from Egypt, six from Bangladesh, three from Guinea, two from Ghana, and one immigrant from Tunisia,” according to the Turkish “Anatolia” agency.
He explained that “the migrants are now in the commercial port of Zarzis, and they will be transferred to one of the places designated to spend the period of compulsory quarantine.”
During the past few months, the number of migrant boats that set out from Libya and Tunisia to Italy and other regions in Europe increased, coinciding with the improvement of weather conditions.
At the beginning of this month, two rescue ships picked up 394 refugees, including Syrians, after they jumped from a rickety wooden boat tens of kilometers from the Tunisian coast.
The International Organization for Migration of the United Nations had counted the death of 1,100 people who fled conflicts and deteriorating economic conditions in the countries of the Middle East and Africa, and were killed during the current year in the Mediterranean Sea.
