More than 2,700 undocumented Tunisian migrants arrived on Italian shores in the past three months of 2017. In the meantime, yet another Mediterranean tragedy at sea was registered with the first shipwreck on the Tunisian route.
More than 2,700 undocumented Tunisian migrants arrived on Italian shores in the three months from July to September 2017, according to the president of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), Messaoud Romdhani. Meanwhile, yet another Mediterranean tragedy at sea was registered with the first shipwreck on the Tunisian route, following the closure by Libya, when eight migrants died after a Tunisian Navy ship and a boat full of migrants collided during the night between Sunday and Monday off the Kerkennah Islands, according to Imed Maaloul, regional health director in the coastal city of Sfax.
5,000 tried to reach Italy
FTDES President Romdhani said nearly 5,000 Tunisians tried to reach Italy in the three months between July and September, with at least a thousand of them stopped by the Italian Coast Guard. He said 42.41% of undocumented migrant arrival attempts came from the coasts off Sfax, in particular the Kerkennah Islands, which are just 120 km from the Italian island of Lampedusa. Those were followed in smaller percentages from the coasts of the governorates of Bizerte, Medenine, Mahdia, and Monastir. The majority of undocumented migrants travel on small boats or fishing vessels. Only 2 percent of the migrants were women, and the majority of the migrants, 67 percent, were between the age of 20 and 30 years old. FTDES spokesman Rim Bouarouj said the number of Tunisian young people who try or have tried to leave the country illegally has increased. In a press conference, he said 54.6 percent of Tunisian young people want to emigrate, and 31 percent are willing to do so illegally.
1,384 arrested in the first 9 months of 2017
Bouarouj also said that based on FTDES estimates, 1,384 young people were arrested in the first nine months of 2017 for attempted illegal migration. Romdhani said there are multiple reasons for this "fleeing the country", including economic and social conditions as well as growing desperation and frustration among young people who don't see a future for themselves in Tunisia.
Other reasons include inefficiency of measures by successive governments over time, the strengthening of networks of smugglers at sea, and the role of social media in spreading these occurrences. Following the shipwreck on Sunday night off the Kerkennah Islands, the eight migrants' bodies were recovered from the sea and brought to the morgue at the Habib Bourguiba University Hospital in Sfax. Maaloul, the regional health director, said the bodies will be returned to the families after routine legal procedures are completed. He said two other migrants who were rescued and taken to hospital were subsequently treated and released. According to a statement from the Tunisian Defence Ministry released Monday, 38 people were rescued and eight died in this most recent Mediterranean disaster. About 20, "maybe nearly 30" people are still missing, according to International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo.