46 Tunisian illegal migrants rescued in two operations

04 Octobre 2020

Tunis, Tunisia, October 4  (Infosplusgabon) - Units of the Tunisian Navy on Thursday rescued 30 Tunisian illegal migrants who were trying to reach Italy, aboard two boats, which had broken down.

The Tunisian Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Friday that the migrants, whose ages range from 20 to 32, had their boats stalled 18 km southeast of the city of Sfax.

Another unit of the Tunisian Navy rescued 16 other Tunisian illegal migrants, including a woman, from drowning, also following the breakdown of their boat some 15 km south-east of the island of Djerba. They were aged between 20 and 40 years.

They had left the Tunisian coast during the night of September 30 to October 1 for Italy.

So far, 9,200 illegal Tunisian migrants arrived on the Italian coast during the last 12 months, according to the Italian Ministry of the Interior, in a statement on September 24.

More than 1,200 attempts at clandestine migration to Italy were recorded during the first half of August against more than 4,000 in July, and 1,500 others during the general sanitary confinement, caused by the Coronavirus.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/PLM/GABON2020

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