At least 17 Bengali migrants drowned in a shipwreck off the Tunisia while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy from Libya, while more than 380 were rescued by the coast guard. The news was disclosed by the Tunisian Red Crescent.
The boat had departed from Zuwara, on the northwest coast of Libya, carrying migrants from Syria, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Mali and Bangladesh, the humanitarian organization said.
“17 Bangladeshis died and more than 380 other migrants were rescued on a boat from Zuwara in Libya to Europe,” said Red Crescent official Mongi Slim.
In recent months, several people have drowned off the Tunisian coast, with an increase in the frequency of attempts to cross over to Europe from Tunisia and Libya to Italy as the weather has improved.
Hundreds of thousands of people have made the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean in recent years, many of them fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. In recent years, arrivals in Italy, one of the main routes of migrants to Europe, have decreased, but the numbers have returned to growth in 2021.
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