"Two people aged 16 and 17 died after infiltrating a container transporting fruit and vegetables on a ship that was heading to a European country," stated Mounir Riabi, the director of civil protection for the Tunis region on Tuesday (January 23) to the French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP).

According to Riabi, the two minors were part of a group of four young people who had been attempting to migrate to Europe by hiding in a refrigerated shipping container. They spent around eight hours in the cold container "before the ship’s crew became aware of their presence and returned to the port of Tunis."

Two surviving members of the group were hospitalized and are reported to be in a "stable condition," Riabi told AFP. He said all four members of the group came from interior regions of Tunisia, where many young people have few prospects and very little money.

Last week, Italian, Tunisian and Maltese authorities said they had been searching for a ship for over a week. The boat was reported to have around 40 Tunisians on board. Their families reported them missing a night after they departed Tunisia. They still have not been found.

More and more migrants leaving Tunisia for Italy

In 2023, Tunisia became the most popular departure point for migrants hoping to reach Italy, taking over Libya in the frequency of departures across the Mediterranean. More than 155,000 migrants reached Italy from the coasts of North Africa, and to a lesser extent Turkey during the course of 2023.

Although many of those who leave Tunisia are migrants from other countries on the African continent, many Tunisians also hope to travel to Italy in search of work and a better life. In 2023, over 17,000 Tunisian nationals reached Italy according to Italian government figures.

Tunisia’s political and economic situation has been worsening over the last few years and so more and more young people see arriving in Europe as the only prospect for their future. Youth unemployment stands at around 38% reports AFP.

'Living in Tunisia is just not feasible anymore'

"Living in Tunisia is just not feasible anymore. We don’t even have anything left to eat," explained Karim, a young Tunisian who spoke to InfoMigrants French in September 2023 when they met him in the town that borders Italy and France, Ventimiglia. "I want to build my own future, help my family back home, and one day found my own family and get married," continued Karim.

Tunisia’s President Kais Saied rejected the terms of a loan offered to it by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), although it had been offered a cash injection of $2 billion (about €1.8 billion). Tunisia’s debts, reports AFP, hover at around 80% of the country’s GDP. It has been paying them back, but that often leads to shortages for the population, including shortages of flour, sugar and rice.

Flour shortages in many countries have been worsened by the war in Ukraine. Ukraine’s grain was exported right across Africa and the Middle East and the difficulties in getting its supplies out have both limited the supply and raised the price, meaning that many developing countries can no longer afford to buy as much as they need, or that their populations cannot afford to pay the prices needed for the bread being sold.

Deterioration of human rights

Last week, the UN Migration Agency IOM reported that about 400 sub-Saharan African migrants were repatriated from Tunisia to their home countries. They were sent back to Burkina Faso, Gambia, Mali and Senegal, according to a statement from the IOM.

In 2023, according to AFP, the IOM repatriated a total of 2,557 migrants to their home countries.

Since July 2021, when President Saied closed down parliament and effectively seized executive power in the country, human rights organizations, like Amnesty International, have repeatedly criticized the deterioration of the respect for human rights in the country.

Opposition politicians and independent journalists have been brought before court and in some cases imprisoned. According to Amnesty, in less than two years, at least 40 people have been object of an inquiry by the Tunisian authorities or have been brought to court just for exercising their right to freedom of expression. There have also been reported cases of arrests and arbitrary detention.

With AFP