At least 12 people were killed after a boat believed to have been carrying 15 mostly young passengers capsized off the coast of Tunisia on Friday night, according to Tunisian authorities. The deaths of those on board triggered protests in Ben Guerdane, southeastern Tunisia, where almost all the passengers reportedly lived.
The Tunisia National Guard recovered twelve bodies over the weekend after a boat sank off Jerjis, on the southeastern coast of the country. Search operations for two others missing were ongoing on Sunday, the national guard said in a statement.
The boat was believed to have been carrying 15 mostly young people when it sank some 14 nautical miles off the shore of Zarzis on Friday night, reported AFP. According to AP, the boat set off on Thursday morning betweet the cities of Zarzis and Ben Guerdane. The passengers are believed to have been set for the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is about 145 kilometers from Tunisia.
In a telephone interview with broadcast network Al Wataniya yesterday (August 23), Houssem Eddine Jebabli, National Guard spokesperson, said that the search involved National Guard and naval units, Civil Protection, and two helicopters.
In a statement on Facebook, the National Guard confirmed the recovery of 12 bodies and a search for two more missing.
"The procedures for delivering the recovered bodies to their families have also been expedited, while search and scanning operations continue without interruption," read the statement.
One rescued alive
The authorities reported that 14 of the passengers were residents of Ben Guerdane, a coastal town located in southeastern Tunisia, sitting very close to the border with Libya. One was a resident of Jerjis, a city and peninsula also on the southeastern coast.
One survivor said he had been adrift at sea for 48 hours before being rescued by a commercial vessel on Saturday, according to national radio Mosaique, cited by AP.
Among those on board were seven members of the same family and a man with his pregnant wife, news agency Reuters reported on Sunday.
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Protests
News of the sinking and deaths of those on board triggered protests in Ben Guerdane. Residents blocked roads and set tires on fire, demanding that the authorities accelerate search and rescue operations for those who remain missing.
Security forces reportedly used tear gas to disperse the protesters.
Ben Guerdane is one of two towns in southeast Tunisia that sit at the border crossings to Libya, a point that is characterized by long-standing formal and informal cross-border trade. Analysis of the economic activity in the area describes the informal economy as tolerated by the authorities for "a measure of social stability in a long-neglected region on Tunisia’s periphery".
Government statistics peg the unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24 years old at 35 percent, reflecting a slight dip compared to the 38 percent in the first quarter of 2026. The jobless rate is divided between 35 percent for men and 37 percent for women.
The protests were reportedly reflective of a simmering resentment over the lack of employment and economic opportunities for young people in the border region.
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Controversial deal
In 2023, Tunisia signed a 255-million-euro (290 million US dollars) deal with the European Union, nearly half of which was earmarked for tackling irregular migration.
The deal, strongly supported by Italy's hard-right government, aimed to bolster Tunisia's border control capacity and prevent boats from leaving its shore.
Last month, 46 human rights and humanitarian groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW), released a joint statement marking the third anniversary of the EU-Tunisia Memorandum of Understanding signed on that day in 2023. The deal committed the EU to provide 105 million euros for border management and maritime operations, with at least 65 million euros already contracted to train and equip the Tunisian Coast Guard and Maritime Rescue Coordination Center.
In a separate statement, the UN warned of systematic abuse, reporting that 7,400 migrants, refugees and asylum seekers had been subjected to arbitrary detention, collective expulsion and trafficking on the Tunisia-Libya border and inside Libya since at least June 2023.
Read AlsoTunisia proposes revision of its EU migration deal
Deaths along the Mediterranean
The news of the deaths in Tunisia comes in the wake of the recovery of at least 32 bodies on Libya's Mediterranean shore near Tripoli and in international waters over a period of five days last week.
The central Mediterranean crossing is the deadliest migration route in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The IOM said earlier this month that the number of migrant deaths on the central Mediterranean route had more than doubled in the first four months of 2026 compared to the same period last year.
At least 914 migrants have died or gone missing along the route this year, according to the IOM.
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