Five migrants drowned, 28 missing off Tunisia, NGO says

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Five sub-Saharan migrants drowned on Wednesday and 28 others are missing after their boat sank off the coast of Tunisia, a human rights group said. 

“The bodies of five migrants have been found and five others have been rescued, but 28 are still missing,” said Romdhane Ben Amor, of the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights ( FTDES).

He said the boat sank “because it was overloaded” with 38 passengers, mostly from Côte d'Ivoire.

The boat had left the coastal region of Sfax in an attempt to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The shipwreck is the latest such tragedy to occur in the central Mediterranean, known to be the deadliest migratory route in the world. world.

It comes a month after the inflammatory speech by Tunisian President Kais Saied, who accused migrants of sub-Saharan Africa to represent a “plot” against Tunisia and to be at the origin of a wave of crime.

His remarks have sparked violence against black migrants and landlords, fearing fines, expelled hundreds of people who are now camping in the streets of Tunis.

Some 21,000 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa are present in Tunisia, a country of twelve million inhabitants, according to estimates.